nbm, you're welcome+this caveat--what I posted is what the legal department authorized the Ameritrade Restricted Stock Department authorized representative who signed the mail notification and whose sig is at the bottom of the posted information to wit you refer--is not something I can "improve upon, because I'm not a lawyer, and therefore at this time I am relying upon what Ameritrated R.S.D. rep is saying to me...
...here are my responses in the order you asked about them.
Rgarding your post regarding restricted stock from last week:
Thank you for your very informative post.
Let me paraphrase your comments to see if I understand this.
#1) In order to clear the restriction, I must sell the shares..(so this is really beneficial to the next person buying the shares and not ME!)
That's the understanding I have.
#2) I must complete a sellers representative's letter and a stock power properly signed and received by broker before I can sell.
That is the understanding I have.
#3) TD Ameritrade is arranging for individualization of each person's stock certificates and is paying for such.
Never heard it called individualization before, but I understand what you are saying, and that is the jist of my understanding, also.
#4) If I choose to sell, the transfer agent may or may not issue a legal opinion. (Don't they know if their stock is any good? What is the need for a legal opinion? What purpose does it serve?)
The latitude of the transfer agent in this entire process is not something I'm really qualified to speak to. Sorry, I don't know what they can get away with and what they can not do.
#5) I will have to pay a $250 processing fee to sell any shares of this 39 cent stock?
That is the understanding I have.
#6) I will have to pay a commission to sell also?
That is what I also understand will occur. And it is my further understanding that this will not be an online transaction which is the lower commission structure charge, but a phone call initiated sell transaction which occurs at a higher commission structure fee expense.
#7) And I will have to designate $2,000 in my account to cover expenses. What expenses would that be and how much will they be?
What I recall understanding here is that there is a minimum of $2000 to open and maintain a MARGIN ACCOUNT minimally for this transaction to occur under the Ameritrade auspices as a TDA client.
Remember, the brokers can require more than the Federal Reserve minimum brokerage house requirements when it comes to customer management. I quoted the F.R. code covering this matter. I'm sorry, I can't call it up at this exact moment.
As regards to the "expenses" you are speaking to, since this stock, by Federal Reserve definition, does NOT qualify for margin, and it appears to me that T.D.A. doesn't believe a $0.39+/- stock is marginable either, that TDA is requiring MORE than $2000 to be "sequestered funds" until this restricted stock sale of PGLC shares is completed.
That overage was stated if memory serves to be 130% of the value of the stock being sold, to be held in abeyance until the sale is successfully negotiated and the trade has actually cleared. Normally this is a T+3 experience with T=Day of the actual trade execution, +3 for settlement, hence the T+3 lingo.
I recall TDA stating that T+3 may not be possible in this particular PGLC transaction. That T+3 is the goal, the expectation in normal stock buying and selling. But I think the rep did a CYA to cover TDA's actual experience yet to take place per individual as relates to this stock.
It is my experience that it is NOT difficult to move margin funds into cash account status, nor cash funds into margin account status with TDA. At least it never has been for me. That being said, it is not just a matter of "hello, I want a margin account, please"...but it IS a matter of filling out an application for opening margin account status, and then receiving either approval to trade on margin, or buy and sell on margin, or receiving denial and one NOT being able to use margin.
I've had my margin agreement for so many years, I can't speak to what current "margin account application" standards for income, frequency, types of stocks, etc., are currently. In otherwords, my margin account approval predates all this Patriot Act climate now currently the financial norm.
TDA Rst. Stk. Dept Rep did not speak to what would happen if someone didn't already have a margin account, and couldn't qualify for a margin accout with TDA who had restricted PGLC stock to sell. That is not covered in what I copy/pasted that I recall. That may be why there was a reference to 130% sequestration of funds to cover this unusual circumstance, which is to protect TDA so they make sure they get their cut first before the dust settles and hopefully funds land in ones account as planned.
#8) Why is Pershing putting the shareholders thru this when they could just arbitrarily lift any restrictions? Aren't they the ones that place them?
This is a tougher one to respond to. I have a tendency to NOT believe anything I'm told, and only 5% of what I've "heard/hearsay." To that end, I rely upon written communications in my business dealings. And that is what has been sorely lacking in this particular matter.
I do know that PGLC managment was just certain this whole CRGC-->PGLC matter would be cleared up by JUNE 2012. Then it was postponed and postponed and postponed until finally the legal department "got it just like the SEC" wanted, and it all came to pass 3.1.2013
What is STILL missing is anything in MY hands transmitted through the hands of the Transfer Agent, actually written/authorized/vetted/cleared/approved by Lawyer Alfers and his band of merrymaker mgmt team which actually addresses this obstreperous fiasco for all individuals joint and severally listed in the public document filing pages of listed selling shareholders, available on Edgar.
I have been consistent in my criticism of lack of transparency with ALL shareholders, not just the super majority insider shareholders apparently actually holding more than 65% of this company's stock.
Until T.D.A. actually put something into print, I had absolutely NOTHING to proceed from that was not hearsay. Until it's in writing, I couldn't rely nor enforce legally in any venue all the "whisper/nods/understandings/and such" which have been the hallmark of this entire spin off.
It is my position that management saw the handwriting on the wall, and struggled mightily to get this spin off accomplished. But they went about it like a bunch of self-serving amateurs. And their demonstrated unwillingness to actually put into writing anything screams cupability to me. Why else be so "un-transparent." It's tough tough TOUGH to enforce verbal promises, explanations et al. It's tough enough to enforce or litigate written ones, that be the god's honest truth.
So, in all sincere effort, these are my best efforts at responding to your sincere request for my opinion.
However, when it comes to legal interp of the written utterances of TDA which are copy pasted on this thread, I am no authority, I'm just a client like many of the rest of us on here.
I would and am more willing to rely upon what THEY have put into writing, and have put out there which may trigger questions and need for clarification. I can ask them now that "it is in written form."
God knows Alfers' et al aren't interested in this matter. It is an annoyance, a distraction, and serves their purpose of keeping a CHUNK of PGLC stock (just under 1/2 the purported float) off the market while they are trying to "raise funds." PGLC mgmt clearly views this as "someone else's problem" now, and have behaved in that deplorable management style manner in my humble opinion.
Thanks in advance for any additional insight
Hope this helps.
