§ 352-C — Prohibited acts constituting misdemeanor; felony

§ 352-c. Prohibited acts constituting misdemeanor; felony. 1. It\nshall be illegal and prohibited for any person, partnership,\ncorporation, company, trust or association, or any agent or employee\nthereof, to use or employ any of the following acts or practices:\n (a) Any fraud, deception, concealment, suppression, false pretense or\nfictitious or pretended purchase or sale;\n (b) Any promise or representation as to the future which is beyond\nreasonable expectation or unwarranted by existing circumstances;\n (c) Any representation or statement which is false, where the person\nwho made such representation or statement: (i) knew the truth; or (ii)\nwith reasonable effort could have known the truth; or (iii) made no\nreasonable effort to ascertain the truth; or (iv) did not have knowledge\nconcerning the representation or statement made;\nwhere engaged in to induce or promote the issuance, distribution,\nexchange, sale, negotiation or purchase within or from this state of any\nsecurities or commodities, as defined in section three hundred fifty-two\nof this article, regardless of whether issuance, distribution, exchange,\nsale, negotiation or purchase resulted.\n 2. It shall be illegal and prohibited for any person, partnership,\ncorporation, company, trust or association, or any agent or employee\nthereof, to engage in any artifice, agreement, device or scheme to\nobtain money, profit or property by any of the means prohibited by this\nsection.\n 3. It shall be illegal and prohibited for any person, partnership,\ncorporation, company, trust or association, or any agent or employee\nthereof, engaged in the sale of any securities or commodities, as\ndefined in section three hundred fifty-two of this article, within or\nfrom the state of New York to represent that they are an "exchange" or\nuse the word "exchange," or any abbreviation or derivative thereof, in\nits name or assumed name unless it is registered with the Securities and\nExchange Commission as a national securities exchange, pursuant to\nsection six of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, or unless it has\nbeen designated as a contract market by the Commodity Futures Trading\nCommission, pursuant to section five of the Commodity Exchange Act.\n 4. Except as provided in subdivision five or six, a person,\npartnership, corporation, company, trust or association, or any agent or\nemployee thereof, using or employing any act or practice declared to be\nillegal and prohibited by this section, shall be guilty of a\nmisdemeanor.\n 5. Any person, partnership, corporation, company, trust or\nassociation, or any agent or employee thereof who intentionally engages\nin any scheme constituting a systematic ongoing course of conduct with\nintent to defraud ten or more persons or to obtain property from ten or\nmore persons by false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or\npromises, and so obtains property from one or more of such persons while\nengaged in inducing or promoting the issuance, distribution, exchange,\nsale, negotiation or purchase of any securities or commodities, as\ndefined in this article, shall be guilty of a class E felony.\n 6. Any person, partnership, corporation, company, trust or\nassociation, or any agent or employee thereof who intentionally engages\nin fraud, deception, concealment, suppression, false pretense or\nfictitious or pretended purchase or sale, or who makes any material\nfalse representation or statement with intent to deceive or defraud,\nwhile engaged in inducing or promoting the issuance, distribution,\nexchange, sale, negotiation or purchase within or from this state of any\nsecurities or commodities, as defined in this article, and thereby\nwrongfully obtains property of a value in excess of two hundred fifty\ndollars, shall be guilty of a class E felony.\n