(b) Except as provided in subdivision (a) hereof, every person, officer, director, agent or employee of a company, partnership, corporation, or association who or which knowingly authorizes, directs or aids in the publication, advertisement, distribution or circulation of any device, scheme or artifice for obtaining money or property by means of any false pretense, representation or promise concerning any vacant land or lands or subdivision thereof, offered for sale or lease, and every person, officer, director, agent or employee of a company, partnership, corporation or association who or which shall have made or attempts to make in the state fictitious or pretended purchases or sales of vacant lands, or who, in any other respect, wilfully violated or fails to comply with any of the provisions of this article, or knowingly omits or neglects to obey, observe or comply with any order, permit, decision, demand or requirement of the department of state under the provisions of this article, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, if a licensee under article twelve (a) of this chapter, the department of state also may revoke or suspend his license in the manner provided in such article. The commission of a single act prohibited by this article shall constitute a violation thereof. All courts of special sessions, within their respective territorial jurisdiction, are hereby empowered to hear, try, and determine such violations without indictment, and to impose the punishments prescribed by law therefor. 6. It shall be the duty of the attorney-general to prosecute all violations of the provisions of this article; such prosecutions may be instituted upon the written request or demand of the department of state. In all criminal proceedings, the attorney-general may appear in person or by his deputy before any court of record or any grand jury and exercise all the powers and perform all the duties in respect of such actions or proceedings which the district attorney would otherwise be authorized or required to exercise or perform; or the attorney-general may in his discretion transmit evidence, proof and information as to such offense to the district attorney of the county or counties in which the alleged violation has occurred, and every district attorney to whom such evidence, proof and information is so transmitted shall forthwith proceed to prosecute any corporation, company, association, or officer, manager or agent thereof, or any firm or person charged with such violation. In any such proceeding, wherein the attorney-general has appeared either in person or by deputy, the district attorney shall only exercise such powers and perform such duties as are required of him by the attorney-general or the deputy attorney-general so appearing. The attorney-general shall, upon a conviction for a violation of any provision of this article, and within ten days thereafter, make and file with the department of state a detailed report showing the date of such conviction, the name of the person convicted and the exact nature of the charge. 7. Any false statement contained in any statement or supplemental statement filed with the department of state pursuant to the requirements of this article, or in any affidavit attached thereto, shall constitute a violation of this article. 8. Any person, partnership, corporation, company or association representing in any manner that the state, the department of state, or any officer thereof has recommended or acquiesced in the recommendation of the purchase of any subdivided lands offered for sale or lease, in advertising or offering such subdivided lands for sale or lease, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or imprisonment for not more than one year or by both such fine and imprisonment.