They didn't have to do anything! They chose to return and retire their collective 18.5M restricted 144 shares issued in 2018 and instead received options!
And anyone who knows anything about restricted shares already issued and then removed from the O/S in exchange for options, knows full well that the net result was a lowering of the O/S hahaha>>>
In the fourth quarter of 2018, the following shares issued on April 27, 2018 were cancelled on December 28, 2018; 7,500,000 shares under the terms of a Consulting Agreement to Blue Oar Consulting, Inc; 11,000,000 shares under the terms of an Employment Agreement to Steven Rotman; 3,300,000 shares under the terms of a Consulting Agreement to The Anchor Group. Due to an administrative error in the form of compensation, the stock based compensation was to be options, not shares. Based on the terms of the options, there was no difference in the fair value from the shares (see note 10).