Purposely Misleading is lying. If in an online interview the issuers CEO claims that ‘they’ bought a bunch of insurance domain names ‘years ago’ but then commits to the SEC the actual date a domain name was bought ( and it’s dated date is not years ago) that’s a lie. Is it misleading? Yes. Is it pathological? Yes, because the lie didn’t need to be told.
I know the defense would be it’s just a small inconsequential thing - but the point of it is honesty and integrity. If it was an isolated incident it might be overlooked. But, this CEO has ‘press released elaborate business schemes, none of which has come to reality. Bull posted a list of questionable things that some long loyal shareholders are now seeing as possibly misleading when taken in the totality.
Being a CEO of a public company is not for everyone. If one is uncomfortable dealing honesty with shareholders then one should delegate this task to a more appropriate person whose agenda is not served by hype, grandiosity, imagination or exaggeration.