The Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading of 26 small, barely operating or defunct companies earlier this month because they had not filed quarterly and annual reports in one to nine years.
Securities lawyers say the Securities and Exchange Commission seldom suspends trading, especially as a punishment for missing or late financial paperwork. Instead, companies have to ignore several warnings, neglect to ask for extensions, and miss more than two quarters to risk such a punishment. One of the suspended companies, Amitelo Communications, hadn’t filed a financial report since Dec. 31, 1995.
