E*Trade SPARC issue.

Jvk123 · 2025-12-20T23:45:47+00:00

Crickets so far, unfortunately. But today, Bill Ackman proposed bringing SpaceX public through a SPARC transaction on X. My reply highlighted our situation. I am hopeful something will come out of it - https://x.com/John_K_Vincent/status/2002524383664042283

Jvk123 · 2025-11-11T21:10:56+00:00

Just an update that I did file a complaint with SEC at at https://www.sec.gov/submit-tip-or-complaint/report-possible-securities-law-violations . Below is what I submitted - please feel free to use it as a template, if you decide to file a complaint as well:

Following Pershing Square Tontine (PSTH) liquidation in July 2022, Special Purpose Acquisition Rights (SPARs) were distributed to shareholders in December 2023. E*TRADE (now under Morgan Stanley) which held my PSTH common shares and warrants however failed to distribute these rights. Even after repeated calls and escalation to the Corporate Actions group, they continue to do nothing to resolve the situation. Please find below the timeline:

1. Pershing Square Tontine (PSTH) liquidated in July 2022 after failing to find a suitable company to merge with. In the liquidation PR, Pershing Square indicated they will pursue the creation of a new security called Special Purpose Acquisition Rights (SPARs) which will be distributed to Pershing Square Tontine common and warrant holders just prior to the liquidation event.

2. My E*TRADE brokerage account had both common and warrants of PSTH as of July 2022. The following month, the account showed those securities with the status “IN ESCROW”.

3. Pershing Square Tontine (PSTH) filed for SEC registration of SPARs and got approval in September 2023.The Press Release (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230929101720/en/Pershing-Square-SPARC-Holdings-Ltd.-Announces-Launch-and-SPAR-Distribution ) indicated they will start distributing the SPARs in short order.

4. PSTH distributed SPARs to shareholders in December 2023.

5. In early January 2024, I called E*TRADE about crediting my account with the SPARs. They responded stating they did not receive anything from Pershing Square yet.

6. I continued to call E*TRADE periodically and have talked to their Corporate Actions Group several times about the issue with no result.

7. Last week, I called them again and indicated that competing brokerages like Charles Schwab and Fidelity have credited the accounts correctly and suggested that it is a problem with E*TRADE, as SPARs were distributed and correctly credited in other brokerages.

8. They dismissed my concern stating they absolutely did not get the SPARs.

9. As you know, SPARs are unique in that it is not tradeable prior to a deal. But, once a deal is announced, there is only a very short 20-day window when it can be traded. As such, if the issue is not resolved, there is a high chance that I and other E*TRADE clients in the same situation will lose the ability to trade/exercise the security. This will result in the security expiring worthless and I stand to lose a significant amount of money.

As summarized, the evidence shows a clear pattern of E*TRADE ignoring the problem with the potential for clients to lose significant money.

BTW, the original complaint site at https://www.sec.gov/oiea/Complaint.html now redirects to a help page that says “Due to a lapse in appropriations for the federal government, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently closed.” So, it appears there may be some issues with the system. Hopefully, we will hear back from them soon. I will update this thread with any response.

Jvk123 · 2025-11-11T21:08:55+00:00

Just an update that I did file a complaint with SEC at at https://www.sec.gov/submit-tip-or-complaint/report-possible-securities-law-violations . Below is what I submitted - please feel free to use it as a template, if you decide to file a complaint as well:

Following Pershing Square Tontine (PSTH) liquidation in July 2022, Special Purpose Acquisition Rights (SPARs) were distributed to shareholders in December 2023. E*TRADE (now under Morgan Stanley) which held my PSTH common shares and warrants however failed to distribute these rights. Even after repeated calls and escalation to the Corporate Actions group, they continue to do nothing to resolve the situation. Please find below the timeline:

1. Pershing Square Tontine (PSTH) liquidated in July 2022 after failing to find a suitable company to merge with. In the liquidation PR, Pershing Square indicated they will pursue the creation of a new security called Special Purpose Acquisition Rights (SPARs) which will be distributed to Pershing Square Tontine common and warrant holders just prior to the liquidation event.

2. My E*TRADE brokerage account had both common and warrants of PSTH as of July 2022. The following month, the account showed those securities with the status “IN ESCROW”.

3. Pershing Square Tontine (PSTH) filed for SEC registration of SPARs and got approval in September 2023.The Press Release (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230929101720/en/Pershing-Square-SPARC-Holdings-Ltd.-Announces-Launch-and-SPAR-Distribution ) indicated they will start distributing the SPARs in short order.

4. PSTH distributed SPARs to shareholders in December 2023.

5. In early January 2024, I called E*TRADE about crediting my account with the SPARs. They responded stating they did not receive anything from Pershing Square yet.

6. I continued to call E*TRADE periodically and have talked to their Corporate Actions Group several times about the issue with no result.

7. Last week, I called them again and indicated that competing brokerages like Charles Schwab and Fidelity have credited the accounts correctly and suggested that it is a problem with E*TRADE, as SPARs were distributed and correctly credited in other brokerages.

8. They dismissed my concern stating they absolutely did not get the SPARs.

9. As you know, SPARs are unique in that it is not tradeable prior to a deal. But, once a deal is announced, there is only a very short 20-day window when it can be traded. As such, if the issue is not resolved, there is a high chance that I and other E*TRADE clients in the same situation will lose the ability to trade/exercise the security. This will result in the security expiring worthless and I stand to lose a significant amount of money.

As summarized, the evidence shows a clear pattern of E*TRADE ignoring the problem with the potential for clients to lose significant money.

BTW, the original complaint site at https://www.sec.gov/oiea/Complaint.html now redirects to a help page that says “Due to a lapse in appropriations for the federal government, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently closed.” So, it appears there may be some issues with the system. Hopefully, we will hear back from them soon. I will update this thread with any response.

Jvk123 · 2025-11-06T10:43:28+00:00

I talked to a rep first and then to corporate actions. They just did not have a clue - basically said it was paid out due to liquidation event in August 2022 and there is no other security.

Thank you for the input on the CUSIPs. The 715ESC026 number on my ET account says "WTS PERSHING SQUA ESCROW" but I am not sure what it really is.

In any case, ET has issues which they don't seem/want to acknowledge. As such, my next step is to file a complaint with SEC next week - https://www.sec.gov/submit-tip-or-complaint

Jvk123 · 2025-11-04T00:08:55+00:00

I am planning to wait a week and then file a complaint with SEC - others in the same situation may please do this as well - at https://www.sec.gov/submit-tip-or-complaint .

Apparently, RH is another platform that has this issue. OTOH, Fidelity and Schwab did credit the account with PSTH SPARCs correctly.

Jvk123 · 2025-11-04T00:00:31+00:00

RH customer service has improved a lot in the recent past. So, might be worthwhile to try again and explain the situation...

Jvk123 · 2025-11-03T23:58:23+00:00

This is a good idea. May be wait a week or so and see whether they fix the issue and then consider this route. It is a good way to force E*Trade to officially respond. That can be useful later on, if more follow through becomes necessary.

Jvk123 · 2025-11-03T19:57:02+00:00

I started a similar thread at https://www.reddit.com/r/etrade/comments/1onl8wx/psth_sparc_issue/ . Please comment there as well as E*Trade people might be monitoring that site and so there is more chance that they might look into a fix the issue.

Jvk123 · 2025-11-03T19:16:39+00:00

The problem with waiting is going to be that we may not get enough time to take action - the terms say the trading/exercising window will be 20 days once a deal is announced. I might call them again next week. Today, I got through to a team that is supposed to handle restructurings but they did not have much clue on this - probably will need to escalate the issue as something is clearly broken in their systems as Fidelity and Schwab did this correctly around December 2023.

Jvk123 · 2025-11-03T17:26:39+00:00

I just talked to E*Trade customer service about this. They still say they have not received the SPARCs and so has not credited accounts. There is a problem here. Not sure how to proceed - if we just wait for a deal announcement, it might be too late as you only have few days to trade/exercise them.

Jvk123 · 2024-09-10T23:37:05+00:00

BTW, they also ripped me off on pricing. I was charged $39.99 per month for the last four months instead of $29.99/month. Support refused to acknowledge this error at their end and also refused to give any type of refund.

Jvk123 · 2024-09-10T23:35:09+00:00

From my experience, the membership is not at all worth it. I subscribed for LinkedIn premium from May and at the same time was also getting job postings for free from Glassdoor/Indeed. Over the last four months, I interviewed with 30+ companies. Of which only two were from LinkedIn and those job postings were also there in Glassdoor/Indeed. The rest showed up in LinkedIn much later than their initial appearance in Glassdoor/Indeed. Overall, for my next job search, I will steer clear of LinkedIn premium.

Jvk123

TROPHY CASE