'Delisting to protect shareholders' is standard, (insincere) boiler plate language; but what bugs me is that Nixon was already on the Expert Market that was a) supposed to allow trading, but by 'experts' only, and b) was otherwise a clear warning sign -- as if a clearer one was needed -- since c) stocks that didn't post financials were sent there because their financials were opaque. But EM stocks are NOT revoked (ticker-symbol-wise).
Now, perhaps the SEC didn't like the fact that WCVC still seemed to be trading with noticeable volume -- and I've been told, which I believe, that Canadian retail buyers were buying it. But what obligation did the SEC have to protect non-US traders who somehow missed the obvious that WCVC was a high-risk -- told to stand in the EM corner -- stock at that point? So, my conjecture is that the SEC didn't have to revoke WCVC, but Nixon sought revocation.
That Nixon 'took it private' without buying out his shareholders -- or at least making them an offer -- is definitely 'scammy'; but Nixon has the very anti-scammer lawyer Brenda Hamilton working for him, and she's actually been associated with him since Nixon took Nixon Restaurant Group public with its reverse merger into WCVC. Plus, how could he offer a buy-back without the cash in the bank? If he had the cash, he wouldn't have needed the toxic notes.
Why Hamilton didn't steer Nixon away from the toxic lenders is questionable. But the classic story is that companies turn to toxic lenders only when they can't get money from more legit sources, meaning those sources don't have confidence in the business plan. So, a) maybe Nixon didn't have another choice, and b) he thought he could pay off the notes before they came due and were converted. There is evidence in Nixon's last filing that he paid down a good chunk of those notes and thought he'd get the rest paid off ... but then COVID came knocking.
Since Hamilton seems to stake her reputation on being anti-fraud/anti-scam, I think it's more likely that she's guiding Nixon through whatever his legal issues are than it is that she's decided that she'll take money from anyone, even from a company that seems to be against every how-to-be-a-responsible-reporting-company rule there is.
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