IR should resign. It is illegal to disseminate false information to investors and if a company is lying, IR has a fiduciary duty to resign immediately. All information must be verified through third party checks and IR can be held liable even if the company is the source of the false information.
The fact this is a scam is not even contestable anymore. There is no cash buyout coming. You can count on it like you can count on the sun rising in the Eastern sky.