Nope! Any CEO can request a HALT on his stock for any reasons, and more specifically if he suspects that some form of FRAUD is going on with these extreme shorting.
For Alpine. the main reason for halt would have been the necessary time to fix the filings. It could have denied indeed, no matter what. After all fixing the crappy filings might not a good granted reason to halt.
Anyway, in these time and days, I suspect anything.
If it takes 3 months to fix the filings, now shareholders are swimming in a pool of FRAUD.