Forgive me, but you are tilting at windmills. what possible difference does it make how the TAs figures came to be public? the essential question is are those figures accurate or not. Furthermore, the OS has now been firmly established as 2,999,984,950. This is not a case of the court disallowing evidence because it was uncovered in an illegal search by the cops. There are, at least, 3 BILLION+/- shares. Cold hard fact.