You would have to suspect that the squeakiest wheels in the process are the hedge funds that have reportedly been socking away Nine Entertainment Co debt in sufficient quantities to give them leverage to force MacKenzie and his team to accept that their equity is worthless - and that giving the lenders control of the assets is the only way out. In reality, these gambits are little more than modern day versions of ''greenmail'' - where instead of buying enough shares to force the target company to buy you out, you buy enough of its debts to force it to do a massive debt for equity swap that sidelines existing investors and allows the newcomers to drive a sale of the assets that reaps far more than the debt ever cost.