I am not sure you can blame the underwriters for some evil...

I am not sure you can blame the underwriters for some evil conspiracy. This was a rights offering. It was open to all shareholders, the underwriters only got to buy if the other shareholders failed to play. A bunch of them didn't. Cannot blame the underwriters for doing their job. They bought control fair and square... it was clear in the publicly disclosed agreements that they could have bought 100% of the rights offering if the shareholders declined to participate. Now that they are exercising control over their $2mm investment, other shareholders get mad. Makes no sense to me... Whiners.