I apologize for the late reply to this post, and I realize some of these issues are out of date at this point. I just noticed it, and I think it's worth replying to because the relationship GLBSE has with asset owners is not like anything ordinary stock exchanges have, and this difference seems to keep getting forgotten:
Actual stock exchanges that are regulated can delist stocks for a variety of reasons (inluding no longer meeting listing requirements) and are not obligated to protect it's value.
That's because they have no continuing agreement with the owner of those assets. GLBSE does.
The company behind the stocks are ultimately responsible for managing the security, with or without a stock market to trade on.
Again, that can't work with stocks listed on GLBSE because the issuer has no way to tell who owns the stock, no way to pay dividends, and so on. Also, it can't work because there is no alternative to GLBSE and many of these securities simply can't work without an exchange to trade on. Of course, that's not GLBSE's fault or responsibility, but it is something GLBSE is obligated to take into account when it decides to delist an asset -- you can't harm people that reasonably relied on you, and to whom you have a continuing obligation, arbitrarily.
To defraud would have required Nefario to steal those customers funds and run with them.
Which he may have done. We don't know. Given that there's no way issuers can redeem the assets through actions we can attribute to Nefario, there is no reason to give him the benefit of the doubt here. The people who bought stocks through GLBSE relied on GLBSE to protect their ownership of the assets and it is GLBSE's default that has totally cut them off from that interest. Nobody can recover that interest without at least GLBSE's assistance.
Fraud is committed on major stock exchanges and those stock exchange can delist stocks no longer fitting the requirements. They are not normally held responsible for that however, they are simply a medium for company and investors to trade assets. That an asset gets delisted does not prevent it's trade over-the-counter between whoever is willing to trade the assets or the company to pay the shareholders.
Right, but that reasoning is not applicable to GLBSE because asset owners have a continuing relationship with GLBSE to track their ownership interest and facilitate buybacks, handle dividends, and so on. And, so far as we know, this wasn't a delisting for cause. Also, GBLSE could have delisted the asset in a way that protect its customers' ownership interest but chose not to for no reason. Customers had every right to rely on GLBSE to preserve their ownership interest and it appears Nefario didn't even consider this at all. To so totally disregard a contractual obligation is shocking. He had to have known this would seriously harm his customers.
I can only agree to the fact that the delisting was rashly and poorly executed, definitely in an attempt to sanction Chaang. I can also agree that the delisting method provided for proof of ownership is poorly adequate.
And it harmed GLBSE's customers -- customers who reasonably relied on GLBSE to protect their ownership interest. Due directly to this action, those people have currently 100% lost the value of that ownership interest -- an interest they can only get back if GLBSE acts.