Ann: Half Yearly Report and Accounts, page-52

The directors of SOR certainly allowed last year's price run-up to happen, but I DON'T BELIEVE they made it happen.
It's more likely that as they were watching it happen, they were thinking - like most of us - WTF is going on?
Further, I don't believe they had any obligation to prevent it happening. They made no misleading or confusing statements and their job is to RUN THE COMPANY, NOT CONTROL MARKET RESPONSE TO IT. So, there was no basis for issuing any "Clarifying statements".

Charles and co have been working for ELEVEN YEARS to make something out of this company. Their director fees are moderate when compared with many other companies and their cost management is excellent; there's no unproductive fat in their system. They stated right from the outset that they are looking at high risk / high reward, innovative propositions ("going boldly where no man has gone before" if you like). If you're not prepared to take that sort of a ride, don't board the vehicle! I admire them for their innovation and persistence. As a result, there has never been a time in all my ownership of shares in this company that I haven't felt secure about the investment of my hard-earned money.

So... to the matter of their profit-taking when a serendipity opportunity fell out of the sky onto all of us...
Had I been in CM's position - and had I been astute enough (which, sadly, I wasn't) - I would probably have done exactly the same thing myself. After eleven years of investing all of his time and a lot of his personal resources, he was entitled to take some profit when an open market opportunity presented itself. The difference between the directors and all the rest of us who are going along for the ride is that we're just passengers who have bought our tickets and are waiting for someone else to get the bus to the desired destination. They have also bought tickets but in addition are doing the hard work of driving the bus. Noisy criticism of the driver from the back of the bus doesn't help in getting to the destination.

CM DIDN'T steal shareholders' money as you and others have insinuated, but sold something he owned on an open market to someone else who thought it was worth that much at the time. No shareholder has been hurt by CM's sale of shares. But some shareholders undoubtedly lost money because of THEIR OWN decision to buy shares.

People who don't like the flavour of chook manure icecream, shouldn't blame the ice cream shop. They made the decision to buy it. There were plenty of other flavours available.