§ 73. Misdemeanor to spread false reports about the finances or management thereof. Any person who maliciously and knowingly spreads false reports about the finances or management or activity of any cooperative corporation incorporated under or subject to this chapter or organized under a similar statute of another state, and operating in this state under due authority, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be subject to a fine of not less than one hundred dollars and not more than one thousand dollars for each such offense; and shall be liable to the corporation aggrieved in a civil suit in the penal sum of five hundred dollars for each such offense.