Deposit for Due Diligence In the normal course of business , the Due Diligence fee paid by the buyer directly to the seller is kept by the seller.
That is , If the deal closes, the buyer will have that amount credited back to them at closing. But either way, in normal business ,that amount up front is the sellers to keep. The reason for this is two fold.....it takes time and money to set up the data room, and the buyer usually has exclusivity , excluding any competing bids while due diligence is done .
For this reason, the seller normally wants the due diligence period to be short.
In the transaction event on July 30, it was stated that the deposit was to be refunded, if due diligence was negative .
Its more than two months now since due diligence began.
This is rather a prolonged period of time in which competing bids cannot be entertained.
To me, this does not pass the smell test .
In my opinion ,It's either a fake or the transaction that was set up for nefarious reasons.I can guess one of these reasons right away.
After Oct 28, it's highly probable that several key executives will have been voted out of office.
At that point in time, the existence of that transaction and the parties involved can be verified.
Publishing fraudulent information intended to deceive has criminal implications.
As the annual financials and its contents are approved by the BOD, they too would probably be considered party to the deceit.