It is my understanding that the SEC and other groups don't put forth any effort to ferret out if companies checked the wrong box. Look at PWEI for example: http://seekingalpha.com/article/927251-pacwest-equities-the-330-million-dollar-pink-sheet-with-no-cash-and-155-million-illegally-issued-shares-part-i Infitialis makes a good case that PWEI was a shell company and thus couldn't rely upon the Rule 144 exemption. But nothing ever happened to them.