Freezing stock to prevent insider trading is one thing... Freezing it to prevent a stock price crash and buy the company a few more days at the expense of employees is another.
In the case of a company going bankrupt I could certainly seeing the lawyers ordering a trading freeze to prevent insider trading.
That said, I looked it up and it seems like the claim at the time was there was an “administrative change” to the plan during that period, so not what I speculated it might be.
