I agree with you, the company has not done anything illegal. They are guilty of being Naïve, and reacting too slowly to what is going on.
I don't think they believed how fast the noteholders could take this to trips. I have contacted the company to warn them, show them the worst case path and tried to offer possible solutions to the problem.
I'm sure others have as well.
But anyone who thinks they have a legal case is misguided. If this current situation is a surprise to them, they only have themselves to blame for not reading the companies filings. The annual outlined over 1.5 million in convertible debt across 18 individual notes all with different interest, and conversion discounts. 1.5 million in discounted convertible debt is a big red flag for any penny stock.
The offset here was the possibility of a game changing acquisition that would quadruple the companies revenue, and raise the share price enough to make the convertible debt less destructive. That acquisition didn't happen in time, but that's just business.
At this point people just need to look at their own risk tolerance and decide whether to hold, cut losses or average down.
The other thing worth noting is that if the company wasn't working with note holders and getting some cooperation, this would already be in the trips.