The degree to which startups with unsustainable business models can be called pump and dump schemes is debated. I wasn’t suggesting they committed fraud, but they definitely put their best foot forward before that transaction and believed it was in their interest to sell.
Also it’s not just unrelated 3rd parties, Enron was included because: “Enron falsely reported profits which inflated the stock price, they covered the real numbers by using questionable accounting practices. Twenty-nine Enron executives sold overvalued stock for more than a billion dollars before the company went bankrupt.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_dump
Also it’s not just unrelated 3rd parties, Enron was included because: “Enron falsely reported profits which inflated the stock price, they covered the real numbers by using questionable accounting practices. Twenty-nine Enron executives sold overvalued stock for more than a billion dollars before the company went bankrupt.”