"The only hope for the future is to get rid of the rot imo and...

"The only hope for the future is to get rid of the rot imo and replace the board"

CityView got a new board in 2002, here are some extracts of what the new board said.

"Your Board, on the advice of its auditors, wrote down $8.38 million of shareholder funds within the last two years. This very large sum of capital was lost during a very brief period. A small-listed company cannot conceivably absorb a loss of this magnitude without severe consequences."

"Our share price spiralled downwards. Our shareholders have become justifiably disappointed. The Board believes that neither hype nor unsubstantiated announcements on a continuous basis can contradict the factual fundamentals of the Company nor create a sustainable high share price."

"Whilst I am confident that your Board has sufficient corporate and investment experience to create value for the Company in the longer term, it must first take prudent decisions with regard to the present realities existing on the ground."

"Almost all our investments have been written off. Not one could be commercially salvaged."

"The ultimate recovery of the loans amounting to $7,952,187 from Medco Madura Pty Ltd and Medco Simenggaris Pty Ltd are dependent upon the future development and successful exploitation or possible sale of the underlying areas of interest."

"Sands Solutions was in financial difficulties and the asset, carried in CityView’s accounts at $3 million may not be recoverable in full."

After several years of trying they gave up and handed the job back to Smyth.

With all the best intentions, a new board will have a very difficult job of recouping losses for remaining shareholders.

Ousting Smyth may be for the better good and protect people from being burnt in the future, but for existing shareholders it probably just means they will finally be forced to realise their losses.

In the interests of existing shareholders, IMO, the only "hope for the future" is either

1) Finding out some precise details of Smyth's plans for "promoting" the stock. Forget the commodity baskets or licences or other pipe dreams, what are his REAL intentions of making money out of CityView so shareholders know whether to hold on to their very expensive lottery tickets or buy some more cheap to average down their purchase price.

or

2) Find some information (or lack of forthcoming information) that clearly demonstrates fraud has been committed and call in the police so they can freeze assets and recover at least some of shareholders' money before it all disappears.

The only people that may benefit from ousting Smyth are potential future investors who haven't even spent a cent yet, or Smyth who just walks away with the money, again.