All I can base it on is my personal experience and opinion. I don't know any more than anyone else regarding this process and nothing I say should be taken as advice. It's just my two cents based on anecdotes.
I work in Risk & Compliance for an institutional investor. I have seen plenty of these deals cross my desk, and I cannot say I have ever noticed anything like that. Not to say that it has never happened before or that it is impossible, but this notion that illegal activity takes place on the majority of these takeovers is not in line with what I have seen.
I have tracked the stock price out of interest just based on my interest in United and my line of work. In my view, throughout this process, the stock price has been reactionary to whatever the press and social media are saying. Whether it is uncertainty about the timeline rises or pro-Ratcliffe/pro-Jassim reports coming out, the action on the share price has followed these reports.
I do not believe these swings have ever reflected any actual changes to the true likelihood of the final outcome. I am convinced the Glazers have wanted to sell to the Qataris since Day 1, and everything in between has just been a means for them to get the Qatari bid to the level they wanted. I am firmly of the opinion that Qatar is going to win this and we are going to find out from an official announcement. They do not seem to have allowed the press to get near them and feed Mike Keegan some info here and there when there is something they want the public to know.