Bull. Brokers aren't just mindless conduits. They have a legally-based fiduciary responsibility to act as agents in transactions. They can't legally trade restricted shares, period. Even if you tell your broker to, he can't. IF HE DOES, HE RISKS LOSING HIS LICENSE. When he does, it's a mistake (except when it's fraud) that he can correct simply by reversing the transactions. The only possible exception to this is where the brokerage neglected to tell the principal (that's the shareholder) that the shares were restricted. Then, the shareholder can say he relied on the faulty information (i.e., that the shares were tradable) that the broker gave him and the broker will have to eat the damages.
The market makers also screwed up here, because they made paper transactions that they (as far as the law's concerned)knew were impossible.
Every time you buy or sell a share of stock, the broker gets a commission and the mm gets a fee. I'll let you connect the rest of the dots.
Whatever you're getting paid, shortsinthesand, it's miniscule in comparison to what you're saving the crooks. You should demand more.
