ADDITIONAL POWERS OF DIRECTOR -- HEARINGS -- REFUSAL TO ATTEND
OR TESTIFY -- FALSE STATEMENTS -- FAILURE TO FILE REPORTS -- UNAUTHORIZED
DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION -- PENALTIES. (a) The director shall also have
power:
(1) To gather and compile information concerning and, to investigate from
time to time the organization, business, conduct, practices, and management of
any person, firm, or corporation engaged in intrastate commerce, and the
relation thereof to other persons, firms, and corporations;
(2) To require, by general or special orders, persons, firms, and
corporations engaged in intrastate commerce, or any class of them, or any of
them to file with the director in such form as the director may prescribe,
annual or special, or both annual and special, reports or answers in writing
to specific questions, furnishing to the director such information as he may
require as to the organization, business, conduct, practices, management, and
relation to other persons, firms, and corporations, of the person, firm, or
corporation filing such reports or answers in writing. Such reports and
answers shall be made under oath, or otherwise, as the director may prescribe,
shall be filed with the director within such reasonable period as the director
may prescribe, unless additional time be granted in any case by the director.
(b) For the purposes of this act the director shall at all reasonable
times have access to, for the purpose of examination, and the right to copy
any documentary evidence of any person, firm, or corporation being
investigated or proceeded against, and may require by subpoena the attendance
and testimony of witnesses and the production of all documentary evidence of
any person, firm, or corporation relating to any matter under investigation.
The director may sign subpoenas and may administer oaths and affirmations,
examine witnesses and receive evidence.
(1) Such attendance of witnesses, and the production of such documentary
evidence, may be required at any designated place of hearing. In case of
disobedience to a subpoena the director may invoke the aid of the appropriate
district court in requiring the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the
production of documentary evidence.
(2) Any of the courts designated in section 37-1925, Idaho Code, within
the jurisdiction of which such inquiry is carried on may, in case of contumacy
or refusal to obey a subpoena issued to any person, firm, or corporation,
issue an order requiring such person, firm, or corporation to appear before
the director or to produce documentary evidence if so ordered, or to give
evidence touching the matter in question; and any failure to obey such order
of the court may be punished by such court as a contempt thereof.
(3) Upon the application of the attorney general of this state at the
request of the director, the district courts shall have jurisdiction to issue
writs of mandamus commanding any person, firm, or corporation to comply with
the provisions of this act or any order of the director made in pursuance
thereof.
(4) The director may order testimony to be taken by deposition in any
proceeding or investigation pending under this act at any stage of such
proceeding or investigation. Such depositions may be taken before any person
designated by the director and having power to administer oaths. Such
testimony shall be reduced to writing by the person taking the deposition, or
under his direction and shall then be subscribed by the deponent. Any person
may be compelled to appear and depose and to produce documentary evidence in
the same manner as witnesses may be compelled to appear and testify and
produce documentary evidence before the director as hereinbefore provided.
(5) Witnesses summoned before the director shall be paid the same fees
and mileage that are paid witnesses in the courts of this state, and witnesses
whose depositions are taken and the persons taking the same shall severally be
entitled to the same fees as are paid for like services in such courts.
(6) No person, firm, or corporation shall be excused from attending and
testifying or from producing books, papers, schedules of charges, contracts,
agreements, or other documentary evidence before the director or in obedience
to the subpoena of the director whether such subpoena be signed or issued by
him or his delegate, or in any cause or proceeding, criminal or otherwise,
based upon or growing out of any alleged violation of this act, or of any
amendments thereto, on the ground or for the reason that the testimony or
evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of him or it may tend to
incriminate him or it or subject him or it to a penalty or forfeiture; but no
person shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for or on
account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which he is compelled,
after having claimed his privilege against self-incrimination, to testify or
produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, except that any person so
testifying shall not be exempt from prosecution and punishment for perjury
committed in so testifying.
(c) Any person, firm, or corporation that shall neglect or refuse to
attend and testify or to answer any lawful inquiry, or to produce documentary
evidence, if in his or its power to do so, in obedience to the subpoena or
lawful requirement of the director 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 one thousand dollars ($1,000) nor more than five
thousand dollars ($5,000), or by imprisonment for not more than one (1) year,
or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(1) Any person, firm, or corporation that shall wilfully make, or cause
to be made, any false entry or statement of fact in any report required to be
made under this act, or that shall wilfully make, or cause to be made, any
false entry in any account, record, or memorandum kept by any person, firm, or
corporation subject to this act or that shall wilfully 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, firm, or corporation, or that shall wilfully
remove out of the jurisdiction of this state, or wilfully mutilate, alter, or
by any other means falsify any documentary evidence of any such person, firm,
or corporation or that shall wilfully refuse to submit to the director or to
any of his authorized agents, for the purpose of inspection and taking copies,
any documentary evidence of any such person, firm, or corporation in his
possession or within his control, shall be deemed guilty of an offense and
shall be subject, upon conviction in any court of competent jurisdiction to a
fine of not less than one thousand dollars ($1,000) nor more than five
thousand dollars ($5,000), or to imprisonment for a term of not more than
three (3) years, or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(2) If any person, firm, or corporation required by this act to file any
annual or special report shall fail so to do within the time fixed by the
director for filing the same, and such failure shall continue for thirty (30)
days after notice of such default, such person, firm, or corporation shall
forfeit to this state the sum of one hundred dollars ($100) for each and every
day of the continuance of such failure, which forfeiture shall be payable into
the treasury of this state, and shall be recoverable in a civil suit in the
name of the state brought in the county where the person, firm, or corporation
has his or its principal office or in any county in which he or it shall do
business. It shall be the duty of the various prosecuting attorneys, under the
direction of the attorney general of this state, to prosecute for the recovery
of such forfeitures. The costs and expenses of such prosecution shall be paid
out of the appropriation for the expenses of the courts of this state.
(3) Any officer or employee of this state who shall make public any
information obtained by the director without his 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 five thousand dollars
($5,000), or by imprisonment, not exceeding one (1) year, or by both such fine
and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. |
