I dont think there is any way to get an idea of the true shares outstanding just by conducting an informal poll on Agora. I think it is up to the company to find some way to track all of the people that claim they are registered shareholders. If the shares outstanding amount to 220 million, and the company has to send out reports to all registered shareholders, there must be some way to back track and get the data for the total shares that people think they own.

ESL, if that can be determined by the transfer agent then it sounds pretty easy, but I think ECU is also traded on the OTC market, and also in Europe. So someone has to connect all the dots and then come to an estimate.

We already know that ECU has been on the failure to deliver report several times. Did those transactions ever get resolved? If you have institutions that are selling stock and then not delivering shares, they should have to go back into the market and buy every share that is not accounted for. I suspect that is not happening and that they are let off somehow.

I have seen reports from other companies where it was discovered that the total shares in circulation were a multiple of the number that were ever issued. That is fraud. The failure to ensure that it does not continue and to punish those responsible is even more discouraging. Are our markets that corrupt?

I can guarantee you that if I go to the bank and get paid $20 too much by accident, no matter how many transactions go through that day, someone will go back through and find the mistake. Why is there not the same degree of scrutiny with our markets?

cheers!

mike