The transaction was dishonest from day one. Those shares were worth more than 1/10th of a cent each. Had he offered to sell them at that point (if he were wil

The transaction was dishonest from day one. Those shares were worth more than 1/10th of a cent each. Had he offered to sell them at that point (if he were willing to do so and legally allowed) he would have gotten far more than that. He (rather, the company that he controlled) just declared a value by fiat. The stock had no true market price because there was no market: at that point, the shares could not be sold to outsiders, so there were no willing buyers or sellers to set a price.