Chris Hamilton took over the club at the demise of the Bears at the back end of 1997, with three others. Gradually over the years the other three dropped out one at a time. Bill Quinn came in as a big money backer three years ago, with Chris still owning 25% of the club. So the short answer to your question is has not stopped being a share holder, just did not have full control.

In my view big money backers, do not go into these ventures to provide money without clauses. most invest money into the clubs as directors loans and do expect a return if the club becomes more successful. I suspect that this is what happened at oldham and also suspect that the vast majority of outstanding debts at Oldham will now be owed to Bill Quinn the recently departed "sugar daddy".

totally untrue. You wil get better returns on your money by keeping it under the bed than putting it into a RL club. The overwhelming majority of shareholders / directors / owners are ikely to know this.

Feel sorry for lower league clubs struggling.

Indeed they are