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15 U.S.C. § 50Offenses and penalties

submitted 112 years ago by ch. 311 to r/title-15-COMMERCE-AND-TRADE · 596 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

This law sets criminal penalties for defying the Federal Trade Commission. Refusing to testify or hand over documents under a court order can bring a fine and up to a year in prison. Falsifying records or destroying evidence can bring up to three years. Late reports trigger a $100-a-day forfeiture, and an FTC employee who improperly leaks information faces a fine or up to a year in prison.

Anyone who refuses or fails to appear, testify, answer a lawful question, or hand over documents — after a federal district court has ordered them to comply with a Commission subpoena — commits an offense. If convicted, they face a fine of $1,000 to $5,000, up to one year in prison, or both. Anyone who willfully makes a false entry or statement in a report required under this subchapter, or in any account or record a covered business keeps, or who willfully fails to keep full and accurate records of that business's facts and transactions, or who willfully removes documents from U.S. jurisdiction, or mutilates, alters, or otherwise falsifies documents, or who willfully refuses to let the Commission or its agents inspect and copy documents in their possession or control — commits a federal offense. If convicted, they face a fine of $1,000 to $5,000, up to three years in prison, or both. If a person, partnership, or corporation required to file an annual or special report fails to file it on time, and the failure continues for 30 days after the Commission gives notice, the corporation forfeits $100 to the United States for every day the failure continues. This money goes to the U.S. Treasury and can be recovered through a civil lawsuit — filed where the business has its main office or does business (for a corporation or partnership), or where the person lives or has their main place of business (for an individual). U.S. Attorneys, under the Attorney General's direction, must prosecute to recover these forfeitures, with the costs paid from the courts' expense budget. Any Commission officer or employee who makes information the Commission obtained public, without the Commission's authorization and unless a court orders it, commits a misdemeanor. If convicted, they face a fine of up to $5,000, up to one year in prison, or both, at the court's discretion.
the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

Any person who shall neglect or refuse to attend and testify, or to answer any lawful inquiry or to produce any documentary evidence, if in his power to do so, in obedience to an order of a district court of the United States directing compliance with the subpoena or lawful requirement of the Commission, shall be guilty of an offense and upon conviction thereof by a court of competent jurisdiction shall be punished by a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $5,000, or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Any person who shall willfully make, or cause to be made, any false entry or statement of fact in any report required to be made under this subchapter, or who shall willfully make, or cause to be made, any false entry in any account, record, or memorandum kept by any person, partnership, or corporation subject to this subchapter, or who shall willfully neglect or fail to make, or to cause to be made, full, true, and correct entries in such accounts, records, or memoranda of all facts and transactions appertaining to the business of such person, partnership, or corporation, or who shall willfully remove out of the jurisdiction of the United States, or willfully mutilate, alter, or by any other means falsify any documentary evidence of such person, partnership, or corporation, or who shall willfully refuse to submit to the Commission or to any of its authorized agents, for the purpose of inspection and taking copies, any documentary evidence of such person, partnership, or corporation in his possession or within his control, shall be deemed guilty of an offense against the United States, and shall be subject, upon conviction in any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction, to a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $5,000, or to imprisonment for a term of not more than three years, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

If any persons, partnership, or corporation required by this subchapter to file any annual or special report shall fail so to do within the time fixed by the Commission for filing the same, and such failure shall continue for thirty days after notice of such default, the corporation shall forfeit to the United States the sum of $100 for each and every day of the continuance of such failure, which forfeiture shall be payable into the Treasury of the United States, and shall be recoverable in a civil suit in the name of the United States brought in the case of a corporation or partnership in the district where the corporation or partnership has its principal office or in any district in which it shall do business, and in the case of any person in the district where such person resides or has his principal place of business. It shall be the duty of the various United States attorneys, under the direction of the Attorney General of the United States, to prosecute for the recovery of the forfeitures. The costs and expenses of such prosecution shall be paid out of the appropriation for the expenses of the courts of the United States.

Any officer or employee of the Commission who shall make public any information obtained by the Commission without its authority, unless directed by a court, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $5,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

Source credit: (Sept. 26, 1914, ch. 311, § 10, 38 Stat. 723; June 25, 1948, ch. 646, § 1, 62 Stat. 909; Pub. L. 93–637, title II, § 203(c), Jan. 4, 1975, 88 Stat. 2199; Pub. L. 96–252, § 6, May 28, 1980, 94 Stat. 376.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit
  • 1914Enacted · Act of Sept. 26, 1914, ch. 311 · 38 Stat. 723
  • 1948Amended · Act of June 25, 1948, ch. 646 · 62 Stat. 909
  • 1975Amended · Pub. L. 93-637 · 88 Stat. 2199
  • 1980Amended · Pub. L. 96-252 · 94 Stat. 376

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 311 on 1914-09-26.

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