(b) Except as provided in subdivision (a) hereof, every person,
officer, director, agent or employee of a company, partnership,
corporation, or association who or which knowingly authorizes, directs
or aids in the publication, advertisement, distribution or circulation
of any device, scheme or artifice for obtaining money or property by
means of any false pretense, representation or promise concerning any
vacant land or lands or subdivision thereof, offered for sale or lease,
and every person, officer, director, agent or employee of a company,
partnership, corporation or association who or which shall have made or
attempts to make in the state fictitious or pretended purchases or sales
of vacant lands, or who, in any other respect, wilfully violated or
fails to comply with any of the provisions of this article, or knowingly
omits or neglects to obey, observe or comply with any order, permit,
decision, demand or requirement of the department of state under the
provisions of this article, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, if a
licensee under article twelve (a) of this chapter, the department of
state also may revoke or suspend his license in the manner provided in
such article. The commission of a single act prohibited by this article
shall constitute a violation thereof. All courts of special sessions,
within their respective territorial jurisdiction, are hereby empowered
to hear, try, and determine such violations without indictment, and to
impose the punishments prescribed by law therefor.
6. It shall be the duty of the attorney-general to prosecute all
violations of the provisions of this article; such prosecutions may be
instituted upon the written request or demand of the department of
state. In all criminal proceedings, the attorney-general may appear in
person or by his deputy before any court of record or any grand jury and
exercise all the powers and perform all the duties in respect of such
actions or proceedings which the district attorney would otherwise be
authorized or required to exercise or perform; or the attorney-general
may in his discretion transmit evidence, proof and information as to
such offense to the district attorney of the county or counties in which
the alleged violation has occurred, and every district attorney to whom
such evidence, proof and information is so transmitted shall forthwith
proceed to prosecute any corporation, company, association, or officer,
manager or agent thereof, or any firm or person charged with such
violation. In any such proceeding, wherein the attorney-general has
appeared either in person or by deputy, the district attorney shall only
exercise such powers and perform such duties as are required of him by
the attorney-general or the deputy attorney-general so appearing. The
attorney-general shall, upon a conviction for a violation of any
provision of this article, and within ten days thereafter, make and file
with the department of state a detailed report showing the date of such
conviction, the name of the person convicted and the exact nature of the
charge.
7. Any false statement contained in any statement or supplemental
statement filed with the department of state pursuant to the
requirements of this article, or in any affidavit attached thereto,
shall constitute a violation of this article.
8. Any person, partnership, corporation, company or association
representing in any manner that the state, the department of state, or
any officer thereof has recommended or acquiesced in the recommendation
of the purchase of any subdivided lands offered for sale or lease, in
advertising or offering such subdivided lands for sale or lease, shall
be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than one
thousand dollars, or imprisonment for not more than one year or by both
such fine and imprisonment.