I don't see any custodianship petition filed for the KATX shell so it looks like a little bit of both (an illegal hijacking and a stock manipulation scheme).
I looked for a custodianship petition last night, too, and couldn't find one. Of course that doesn't mean it doesn't exist; usually they don't turn up if you use the name of the company as a keyword. Hayes used to buy shells from Adam Tracy, but perhaps he's found it's easier and cheaper just to create a website and twitter account, and interest some pumper clowns in pushing it on the social media.