The appearance of Auspex was at a time when the stock price was moving upward. The problems that became troublesome for WSTI at the time included the efforts to get the India plant built and up and running. Sometime earlier in the year the company ran into some kind of difficulties with one or more suppliers. WSTI does not manufacture the parts and materials bur outsources most of that. WSTI is primarily an assembly line with a small amount of manufacturing. The problem was exacerbated with India having to get materials and supplies from Indiana's suppliers as well. That really choked the whole system. Those investors who were close enough to what was happening could smell blood and one could see a really good setup to SHORT the company. Bates had even mentioned in an interview that he had some convertibles and that they would be a problem although he expected to get through them. The sharks smelled blood and hired out Hooker Houses like Auspex to pump that. The shorting of shares did indeed do big harm to company finances but also, by happenstance, to sales. You are right that the pump and dump did big harm.
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