These guys are clutching at straws now. It is plainly obvious to...

These guys are clutching at straws now. It is plainly obvious to me that all the recent selling is Gino and/or Russell (despite neither of them filing a change of substantial ownership with ASX/ASIC, which incidentally is illegal). The rest of the register has barely changed over the past 4-5 months, so how else can you explain the 5 million shares that have traded since November, pushing the stock from 55c down to 35c in such an indiscriminate manner?

It's unclear what their motives are for selling, but seemingly they are trying to sabotage the business in some way. Anyone who genuinely wants to get the best price for his shares does not go about unwinding a position in this way, so one can only guess that they personally are not actually receiving the proceeds of these sales. This would tie in with the assumption that their holding (or a large portion of it) acts as security for a loan (which allegedly they did not fully disclose as directors). Again, this is just my opinion.

One can only guess that their desired endgame is to push the stock price down and somehow pressure the business to stop its legal actions and allow BC Anthracite to go ahead unchecked (with land that was allegedly stolen from Atrum) or to force a change on the board (which is what Gino is currently doing). If I am correct, it appears that the first part of their plan has been thwarted by a conglomerate who is on the bid at 30c, basically saying "if you want to dump your holding, here's the price, but then you have no way to effect change at the board level because then you won't own any more shares". The fact they haven't hit the bid and have completely halted selling the past couple of days tells me they have no plan B, or at least are not acting upon it just yet.

Now Gino files to have two NED's removed from the board. I have no opinion about these two individuals, other than the fact that they were present when Gino and Russell were "doing their thing" over the past 12-18 months. Based on this, I do not have much confidence about their commitment to the business, despite their history and experience - they have not purchased any shares in the business despite being affiliated with it for about a year, they both sat idle while Gino and Russell were ruining the business last year but still collected their (albeit small) director cheques and share grants. So if these two guys are removed and replaced I will not necessarily cry them a river, but the business will need to replace them with seasoned, respected individuals within the industry and it is an additional distraction that is probably not needed at this stage.

All that said, I still don't really understand Gino's (and Russell's) motive for this move, although I'm strongly of the opinion that their motives are most definitely not in the best interests of other shareholders (i.e all of us). If I am correct about all of my assumptions and allegations regarding the events of the past few years then I sincerely hope Atrum continues with all of it's lawsuits against these two individuals and consequently burns these guys at the stake.