This section defines fraud involving documents of title and sets criminal penalties for several kinds of false or deceptive issuing, delivering, negotiating, or transferring of warehouse receipts and bills of lading.
§7-604. Fraud through the use of a document of title The offense of fraud through the use of a document of title is defined as: (1)(a) Issuing or aiding in issuing a warehouse receipt knowing that the goods for which the receipt is issued have not been actually received by the issuer, or are not under his actual control at the time of issuing such receipt. (b) Issuing or aiding in issuing a duplicate or additional negotiable warehouse receipt for goods knowing that a former negotiable receipt for the same goods or any part of them is outstanding and uncancelled, without plainly placing upon the face thereof the word "duplicate" except in the case of a lost or destroyed receipt after proceeding as provided in R.S. 10:7-601(a). (c) Issuing or aiding in issuing a bill of lading knowing that all or any part of the goods for which such bill is issued have not been received by the issuer, or by an agent of the issuer or by a connecting carrier, or are not under the issuer's control at the time of issuing such bill; or (d) Issuing, with intent to defraud, a duplicate or additional negotiable bill of lading for goods in violation of the provisions of R.S. 10:7-402, knowing that a former negotiable bill for the same goods or any part of them is outstanding and uncancelled. (e) Whoever commits the offense of fraud through the use of a document of title as defined in Subsection (1) of this Section shall, for each offense, be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisoned with or without hard labor not more than ten years or both. At least twelve months of the sentence imposed shall be served without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. (2)(a) Issuing or aiding in issuing a document of title knowing that it contains any false statement. (b) Depositing goods to which the depositor has no title, or upon which there is a mortgage, privilege, or lien, and taking for such goods a negotiable document of title which he afterwards negotiates for value with intent to deceive and without disclosing his want of title or existence of the mortgage, privilege, or lien. (c) Issuing or aiding in issuing a negotiable warehouse receipt for goods, which the issuer owns, either solely or in indivision with others, without stating such ownership on the receipt. (d) Delivering goods knowing that a negotiable warehouse receipt, the negotiation of which would transfer the right to possession of such goods, is outstanding and uncancelled, without obtaining the possession of such receipt at or before the time of such delivery or without complying with the provisions of R.S. 10:7-601. (e) Negotiating or transferring for value a bill of lading knowing that any or all of the goods which by the terms of such bill appear to have been received for transportation by the issuer, are not in the possession or control of the issuer or of a connecting carrier, without disclosing this fact. (f) Inducing an agent of a carrier to cause to be issued a bill of lading by intentionally misleading him to believe that the goods described in the bill as received for transportation have been received by the carrier, its agent, or a connecting carrier, when in fact none or less than all of such goods were so received; or (g) Issuing or aiding in issuing, with intent to defraud, a nonnegotiable bill of lading without the words "not negotiable" placed plainly upon the face thereof. (h) Whoever commits the offense of fraud through the use of a document of title as defined in Subsection (2) of this Section shall, for each offense, be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned with or without hard labor not more than five years or both. At least six months of the sentence imposed shall be served without parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. Acts 2009, No. 207, §3, eff. Jan. 1, 2010.