People did that and they were told sorry, we are not allowing delivery of certs - at least prior to the 3M to 1 FS. Oh and the Auth was 100M shares and I owned and had delivered after the FS 3B shares in violation of the share structures maximum Auth.
The SEC's "fair" resolution?
Instead of enforcing their rule which said if a shareholder sold a stock prior to the ex-date they also sold the rights to the dividend (and became short that dividend and responsible to cover) they decided to suspend the Net Capital rule allowing those who were short and their brokers to NEVER ever have to cover!
Of course they included language to say if needed to protect investors in the future they might consider removing their suspension of the NET CAPITAL rule.
Anything and everything to protect the big names on wall street and nothing to enforce the rules.
Now the BEST part! Only a few brokers ever actually got delivery of the forward split shares when they could be traded. After the SEC suspended the stock at the bequest of the insider who had orchestrated the mess nothing happened for two weeks. Then market makers refused to allow the stock to trade and shorts never covered. The company illegally after the fact increased the authorized max share structure by post dating a Florida SOS document- right on the document - the date filed is the critical date - LOL - not the date they print on the form!
Some brokers delivered shares and reversed them in a blink of an eye in 5 minutes. An unauthorized never sanctioned 3M to 1 RS was done by brokers at the request of the company and the TA. The SEC and NASD never publically recognized this reverse split. Regulators did nothing to assist anyone- just your standard thanks for contacting us (as we throw it into the trash bin) replies.
ScottTrade after the illegal RS decided to mail FREE paper certificates to all involved. Well, all they could- LOL. First they tried certified mail. Many did not sign and it was returned. Then the tried regular mail. For retirement / IRA accounts they were not able to do this due to some regulation and were stuck and tried to coerce the folks to request the paper cert for free or encourage them to leave ST otherwise.
What a way to eliminate your risk!
In the end investors got screwed by the very organization charged in protecting them- the SEC - in conjunction with the NASD which came begging on behalf of brokers and market makers.
Fair market place in the good ole USA? Market Integrity? LMAO
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