Previous episodes: Day 28: The War Room | Day 27: The Sanako File | The Man Who Was Not Supposed to Matter | The Man Who Knew the Rules
Thirty-four days since the Danish High Court unanimously annulled the bankruptcy of Shape Robotics.
Today I could walk back through every episode I’ve written and point at every paragraph that predicted exactly this. I could underline each sentence. I could say I told you so in seventeen different ways.
I won’t do that. Not because I’m above it — I’m not — but because what happened today matters far beyond me, far beyond Shape Robotics, and far beyond any satisfaction I might feel.
What happened today is that the system worked. Slowly. At enormous cost. But it worked.
Let me tell you how.
At 13:20 Copenhagen time, Finanstilsynet published a decision that changes everything
At 13:20 on 7 April 2026, Finanstilsynet — the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, the institution that oversees every financial actor in Denmark — published a formal decision on its official website.
The title: “Påtale for overtrædelse af reglerne om investeringsanbefalinger i markedsmisbrugsforordningen.”
In English: Reprimand for violation of the rules on investment recommendations under the Market Abuse Regulation.
The decision describes an unnamed analyst who prepared a note about a share listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen Main Market. The analyst used the issuer’s own financial targets to project a significant theoretical price increase. The note was distributed internally to a broad email group at his workplace and to several external persons. At the time of distribution, the analyst held shares in the same company he was recommending.
This shareholding was not disclosed. Not in the note. Not in any accompanying communication. Not anywhere.
Finanstilsynet found this to be a material conflict of interest and a violation of Article 20(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.
Formal reprimand issued.
The decision does not name the person. I will.
It is Lars Topholm. Formerly Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Carnegie Investment Bank Denmark. The man I wrote about in February, when I had no lawyers, no institutional support, and a company in illegal bankruptcy. The man I filed a formal complaint about in November 2025. The man the Danish regulator has now, on 7 April 2026, formally and bindingly found to have violated EU law.
Go back to February — and read what I wrote when nobody believed me
On 13 February 2026, I published The Man Who Was Not Supposed to Matter.
At that point, I was contesting an illegal bankruptcy without lawyers. Without institutional allies. Without a single friendly journalist. I had a company whose share price had been destroyed — DKK 23.56 to DKK 1.58, an 87% collapse — and whose trading had been suspended on Nasdaq Copenhagen. I had 4,800 shareholders who had lost a combined DKK 205 million. And I had a story that nobody in the Danish financial press wanted to touch.
So I sat down and wrote it myself.
I documented that in March 2024, Topholm published what he called a “back of the envelope analysis” of Shape Robotics. His opening line was a question designed to make you lean forward: “Are you looking for an idea for micro cap, where there is a theoretical possibility of a three-four times higher share price over the coming years?”
I documented that when he wrote those words, he held 3,500 shares in Shape Robotics, purchased in December 2022.
I documented that this shareholding was disclosed to no one.
I documented what happened next: Shape Robotics raised DKK 35 million at DKK 35 per share, riding the momentum of his recommendation. The stock peaked at DKK 52 on 18 March 2024. Then it collapsed. Ordinary retail investors — people like many of you reading this right now — bought at the top. Insiders got out.
I documented the private email Topholm sent to the Chairman on 24 April 2024, opening with: “I allow myself to turn as a concerned shareholder and nothing else (that is, not in any Carnegie role).” One recipient of that email held 318,311 shares and exited his entire position in the weeks that followed. That same person later co-founded Aerbio, a biotech company where Topholm became Chairman.
All of this was published on Substack in February. In public. For anyone to read.
Today, Finanstilsynet confirmed every material element of that account in a binding regulatory decision.
The format of the note — “internal,” “back of the envelope” — is legally irrelevant, they said. Whether or not the note had a measurable price effect — legally irrelevant, they said. The shareholding was a material conflict of interest. The non-disclosure was a violation of EU law.
The regulator agreed. With every word.
Now go back to November 2025 — and look at the sequence
On 27 November 2025 — the day before the DocuSign envelope that would trigger the bankruptcy proceedings — Shape Robotics filed a formal complaint with Nasdaq Copenhagen. Company Announcement No. 27-25. I published the complaint. I attached the evidence. I named names. I described the shareholding, the recommendation, the capital raise, the collapse.
What happened in the ten weeks that followed deserves to be read slowly.
We filed a market abuse complaint on 27 November.
The next day: the DocuSign that initiated the bankruptcy.
Within days: a media campaign began. Finans.dk published at least 17 articles targeting me and the Company. Romanian fraud. Finnish theft. Unpaid bills. Bankruptcy inevitable. The share price, already damaged, was obliterated.
On 6 January 2026: the bankruptcy decree.
On 5 March 2026: the Danish High Court unanimously annulled it.
On 7 April 2026: Finanstilsynet confirmed the market abuse complaint was correct.
Read that sequence again. Take your time with it. Because the question it raises is not complicated: was the timing of the bankruptcy a coincidence?
We were right before the bankruptcy. We were right during the bankruptcy. We are right now. The regulator says so. In writing.
The criminal complaint is still open
In The Man Who Knew the Rules, published on 21 March 2026, I asked a simple question that nobody in the Danish legal establishment seems willing to answer:
Why did the same trustee who published full MAR-compliant Nasdaq announcements for Scandinavian Brake Systems issue zero announcements for Shape Robotics during a 59-day bankruptcy administration of a listed company with 4,800 shareholders?
I documented it. Filing by filing. Announcement by announcement. His name on the SBS documents. His silence on Shape Robotics.
That criminal complaint — Copenhagen Police reference 0100-83986-10362-26 — remains open. It will stay open until someone answers the question.
What today’s decision means — for four groups of people who need to hear it
To the 4,800 shareholders of Shape Robotics:
The regulator has confirmed in writing that the act which began the chain of events leading to the destruction of your investment was market abuse. Not poor management. Not bad strategy. Not a Romanian CEO who didn’t know what he was doing. Market abuse. A violation of EU law. Your losses are not the result of a company that failed — they are the result of a scheme in which an analyst held your shares, promoted the stock, and told no one. The regulator now says so officially. Hold on to that. We are coming for your money.
To Carnegie Investment Bank:
The employer bears institutional liability for the conduct of its employees acting in the course of their employment. You were required to maintain compliance systems ensuring your analysts disclosed conflicts of interest under MiFID II and MAR. Those systems either failed or did not exist. Following the EGM on 14 April 2026, the new Board of Directors of Shape Robotics will initiate formal recovery proceedings against Carnegie and Lars Topholm personally. This is not a threat. It is a statement of fact. I am asking you now, formally, to preserve all documentation, internal compliance records, and trading data relating to Shape Robotics from December 2022 to December 2025.
To Nasdaq Copenhagen:
You have suspended trading for 34 days. The analyst whose recommendation triggered the chain of events leading to this suspension has been formally found by the Danish regulator to have violated EU law. The company you are suspending was the victim of that abuse — not the perpetrator. You approved Shape Robotics’ uplisting to the Main Market in November 2023. You suspended trading without a legal basis your own rules support — Rule 4.2.1 contains zero references to bankruptcy. The ESMA classification of this suspension was Technical or Administrative, not market abuse.
I have demanded the resumption of trading no later than 11 April 2026. Three days before the EGM. Explain to 4,800 shareholders why their shares should remain frozen in a company whose primary wrongdoers have now each attracted formal regulatory and legal action, while the company itself prepares for a full reconstruction and operational restart.
To Børsen and the Danish financial press:
Kasper Ohmeyer from Børsen called me today. He had read the Finanstilsynet decision. He asked me to confirm.
I confirmed. I also confirmed that every element of the decision maps precisely to the facts in our complaint: the analyst, the stock, the exchange, the note, the shareholding, the non-disclosure. I gave him the full documentation and made myself available on the record.
I expect to see this story told — completely, for the first time — in the Danish press. Not the version where a Romanian CEO went bankrupt. The version where a Danish analyst with 3,500 undisclosed shares promoted a micro-cap, the insiders exited, 4,800 ordinary investors held the bag, and a media group with connections to the people involved spent ten weeks writing articles that accelerated the collapse.
That story is now documented by the regulator. Write it.
The next seven days
9 April — EIFO settlement deadline expires. If no response: complaint to Rigsrevisionen, Company Announcement naming the Paralenz connection, the DKK 10 million in state losses, and the concealment from the 2024 AGM.
11 April — Nasdaq must resume trading. If not: the MAR complaint against Nasdaq (Finanstilsynet ref. 25-026876) escalates.
14 April — EGM. New board elected. New auditor appointed. 100 million shares authorized. IRIS Capital EUR 15 million equity line activated. Phase Education A/S confirmed as operational subsidiary.
15 April — Reconstruction filed. Plan: 27% haircut, 80% debt-to-equity conversion, 20% cash over 18 months. Creditor mapping complete. 83% friendly creditors. Danske Bank and EIFO: 5.8% combined, classified as unsecured under section 97. They cannot block this.
Post-EGM — New board initiates formal civil proceedings against Carnegie Investment Bank and Lars Topholm. Damages will be quantified. The claim will be filed before the competent Danish courts.
One last thing
I was on a live stream tonight when the decision came through. I said “finally” three times.
The first time because seventeen months have passed since we identified the problem. The second time because four months have passed since we filed the formal complaint, in the middle of a bankruptcy that should never have existed. The third time because — and I will not pretend otherwise — there were days when I wondered whether the system would actually work. Whether the regulator would act. Whether the evidence would be enough. Whether being right would matter.
Today, the answer is yes.
The system worked. It worked slowly. It worked at enormous cost to shareholders who deserved better. But it worked.
And to everyone who was told the Romanian CEO was the problem — who read the articles, who saw the headlines, who had doubts — I want you to read the Finanstilsynet decision published today at finanstilsynet.dk and ask yourself one question:
Who was the victim here?
The documents
Everything referenced in this episode is publicly available:
Finanstilsynet decision, 7 April 2026 — finanstilsynet.dk
Company Announcement No. 10-26 — published today on Nasdaq Copenhagen
Company Announcement No. 27-25 — the original complaint, published 27 November 2025
The Man Who Was Not Supposed to Matter — Substack
The Man Who Knew the Rules — Substack
EGM — 14 April 2026 — phase.education/egm
FundShape — fundshape.phase.education
GAME OVER | Day 34 — Subscribe at substack.wildceo.live for real-time updates as this case unfolds.
Shape Robotics A/S | CVR DK38322656 | Nasdaq: SHAPE | ISIN: DK0061273125
Mark-Robert Abraham, CEO — Vesterbrogade 74, 1620 Copenhagen V, DenmarkThank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
