If they did plan to do something like that, it might have worked. IMHO, I think they did nothing except maybe some paper transactions that resulted in no revenue but would help them escape criminal liability.
What makes me think that is that they obviously printed shares while issuing PRs to get the share price up while those shares were placed on the market.
The idea of a company is to own shares, have some shareholders to invest, and the reward is that one day, when the company is successful, the share price will reflect it and you will be rewarded.
It's not to make a startup, say you're reducing the float to get the share price up, claim you are buying back, all while printing shares.
That is, they were desperate for money. The plan you describe required patience and that's something they didn't have.
And that's my opinion and it is not a fact and it's not even an allegation. I don't know what the hell they did. It's a fact that they didn't do it right, legitimate or fraud.
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