Warehouses, grain dealers, and certain cotton and warehouse operators are prohibited from specified commodity misconduct, and violations can bring fines, imprisonment, or perjury penalties.
§3424. Prohibited acts; criminal penalties A. It shall be unlawful for any warehouse to sell, alienate, encumber, transfer title to, pledge, mortgage, or hypothecate in any manner any agricultural commodity or other farm product, or any portion thereof, which has been deposited by the owner thereof specifically for any type of storage, under any type of warehouse receipt or under a scale ticket marked "storage", and which is not the property of the warehouse, without the specific written authorization of the owner thereof. The sale, alienation, encumbrance, transfer of title, pledging, mortgaging, or hypothecation of any such agricultural commodity or other farm product without the written authorization of the owner thereof shall be presumptive evidence of the warehouseman's criminal intent to deprive such owner of his agricultural commodity or other farm product, or the market value thereof, and the warehouse and warehouseman shall be subject, upon conviction, to a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, imprisonment for not more than ten years, or both. B. Any grain dealer who intentionally violates R.S. 3:3413(B) by maintaining a risk position in excess of thirty percent of its current net worth shall be subject, upon conviction, to a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars, imprisonment for not more than ten years, or both. C. Any warehouseman, cotton merchant, or cotton agent, or grain dealer who is found to have willfully submitted false reports of any kind required by this Chapter or by rule or regulation of the commission shall be subject, upon conviction, to the penalties for perjury established under R.S. 14:123. D. The willful failure of a cotton merchant or a cotton agent to pay for cotton delivered which was purchased by the cotton merchant or cotton agent from a cotton producer in this state shall be fraudulent conduct for the purposes of R.S. 14:67. Added by Acts 1982, No. 563, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1983; Acts 1997, No. 1034, §1; Acts 2009, No. 24, §1, eff. June 12, 2009.