Paco Integrated Energy Inc. (fka PACO)

[medchal]

That sounds like E*Trade.

Actually, Ameritrade has simply buffered me slightly from the problem, because they can attest that E*Trade sent unrestricted shares. Whether they should have been restricted (they should) is irrelevant. I checked carefully with Ameritrade, including their reorganizations desk, before selling the shares. All this being the case, E*Trade can pout all they want and won't get me to pay more back for the shares than I got for them, because the error was elsewhere, not with me. It's too late to bust the trade, so if E*Trade wants to set things right, they will have to buy up the shares and send them to the transfer agent in exchange for restricted shares.

In any case, let us not forget where the real blame lies. Legitimate companies and their transfer agents don't perform these half-baked transactions that turn out all wrong.