§485-20.5  Civil penalty.  (a)  The commissioner may bring an action to recover a civil penalty against any person who violates this chapter or who has knowingly violated a rule or order of the commissioner made pursuant to this chapter.  A civil penalty of not more than $100,000 may be assessed for each violation.

     (b)  No civil action shall be brought under this chapter after the expiration of five years from the date of the violation or after expiration of two years from the discovery of facts constituting the violation, but in no event after the expiration of seven years from the date of the violation. [L 1985, c 100, §3; am L 1991, c 30, §3]

 

Case Notes

 

  Commissioner did not exceed bounds of reason or disregard rules or principles of law in levying fine of $100,000 against appellants where appellants made statements in their marketing materials that possible earnings for members from selling appellants' online shopping malls to others could exceed two million dollars, when, in order to earn such fees, members would have had to recruit 393,216 new members in a three-month period, and members testified that overriding focus of marketing meetings was the recruitment of others into the program, not the earning of commissions from sales on the online shopping mall websites.  112 H. 90, 144 P.3d 1.