Either management didn't conduct DD on the audit firm they chose, or they hired them because they were shady, or maybe they were simply cheap.
It takes about 5 mins to look up an audit firm, if management didn't know how to do this, well then maybe they are not cut out to run a public company?
As for market manipulation, you're right I do know a thing or two about it. In my experience it has almost always been insiders or financiers who are manipulating the market, not some outside participant. Companies can show up on REG SHO when unregistered shares are being sold, it doesn't always have to be NSS.
You state "fundamentals are there", how can you be so sure now that the SEC is requiring SPNG to restate and re-audit its financial statements? This is not normal, something is amiss.
Of course nothing anyone says at this point is relevant, the facts are simple, the company is being required to restate it's financials and nobody, not me, not you, not another poster, knows what the results will be until the 10K comes out.
So in essence you are playing a game of chance if you are a long at this point.