"my guess is they would not even know what was happening for a year."
Oh, trust me, they would.
Some publicly-minded citizen would draw such an important price-sensitive PR to their attention, and when they knew it came from a company delinquent in its legally required filings, they'd act fast.
Even without incendiary PRs such as the one you suggest, SEC are quietly and systematically culling companies who have chosen to go dark without filing a Form 15:
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