(a) The Board shall also have power:

(1) To gather and compile information concerning and to investigate from time to time the organization, business, conduct, practices, and management of any person, firm, or corporation engaged in intrastate commerce, and the relation thereof to other persons, firms, and corporations;

(2) To require, by general or special orders, persons, firms, and corporations engaged in intrastate commerce, or any class of them, or any of them to file with the Board in such form as the Board may prescribe, annual or special, or both annual and special, reports or answers, in writing, to specific questions, furnishing to the Board such information as it may require as to the organization, business, conduct, practices, management, and relation to other persons, firms, and corporations, of the person, firm, or corporation filing such reports or answers in writing. Such reports and answers shall be made under oath, or otherwise, as the Board may prescribe, and shall be filed with the Board within such reasonable period as the Board may prescribe, unless additional time be granted in any case by the Board.

(b) For the purposes of this act the Board shall at all reasonable times have access to, for the purpose of examination, and the right to copy any documentary evidence of any person, firm, or corporation being investigated or proceeded against, and may require by subpoena the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of all documentary evidence of any person, firm, or corporation relating to any matter under investigation. The Board may sign subpoenas and may administer oaths and affirmations, examine witnesses, and receive evidence.

(1) Such attendance of witnesses and the production of such documentary evidence may be required at any designated place of hearing. In case of disobedience to a subpoena the Board may invoke the aid of any court designated in Section 6-205 of this title in requiring the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence.

(2) Any of the courts designated in Section 6-205 of this title within the jurisdiction of which such inquiry is carried on may, in case of contumacy or refusal to obey a subpoena issued to any person, firm, or corporation, issue an order requiring such person, firm, or corporation to appear before the Board or to produce documentary evidence if so ordered, or to give evidence touching the matter in question; and any failure to obey such order of the court may be punished by said court as a contempt thereof.

(3) Upon the application of the Attorney General of this state at the request of the Board, the district court shall have jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus commanding any person, firm, or corporation to comply with the provisions of this act or any order of the Board made in pursuance thereof.

(4) The Board may order testimony to be taken by deposition in any proceeding or investigation pending under this act at any stage of such proceeding or investigation. Such depositions may be taken before any person designated by the Board and having power to administer oaths. Such testimony shall be reduced to writing by the person taking the deposition or under his direction, and shall then be subscribed by the deponent. Any person may be compelled to appear and depose and to produce documentary evidence in the same manner as witnesses may be compelled to appear and testify and produce documentary evidence before the Board as hereinbefore provided.

(5) Witnesses summoned before the Board shall be paid the same fees and mileage that are paid witnesses in the courts of this state, and witnesses whose depositions are taken and the persons taking the same shall severally be entitled to the same fees as are paid for like services in such courts, except the person or representatives of the firm or corporation charged with a violation and so summoned shall not be paid the fees and mileage that are paid witnesses.

(6) No person, firm, or corporation shall be excused from attending and testifying or from producing books, papers, schedules of charges, contracts, agreements, or other documentary evidence before the Board or in obedience to the subpoena of the Board, whether such subpoena be signed or issued by it or its delegate, or in any cause or proceeding, criminal or otherwise, based upon or growing out of any alleged violation of this act, or of any amendments thereto, on the ground or for the reason that the testimony or evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of him or it may tend to incriminate him or it or subject him or it to a penalty or forfeiture; but no person shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty or forfeiture for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which he is compelled, after having claimed his privilege against self-incrimination, to testify or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, except that any person so testifying shall not be exempt from prosecution and punishment for perjury committed in so testifying.

(c) Any person, firm, or corporation that shall neglect or refuse to attend and testify or to answer any lawful inquiry, or to produce documentary evidence, if in his or its power to do so, in obedience to the subpoena or lawful requirement of the Board shall be guilty of an offense and upon conviction thereof by a court of competent jurisdiction shall be punished by a fine of not more than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), or by imprisonment for not more than one (1) year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(1) Any person, firm, or corporation that shall willfully make, or cause to be made, any false entry or statement of fact in any report required to be made under this act, or that shall willfully make, or cause to be made, any false entry in any account, record, or memorandum kept by any person, firm, or corporation subject to this act or that shall willfully neglect or fail to make, or to cause to be made, full, true, and correct entries in such accounts, records, or memoranda, of all facts and transactions appertaining to the business of such person, firm, or corporation, or that shall willfully remove out of the jurisdiction of this state, or willfully mutilate, alter, or by any other means falsify any documentary evidence of any such person, firm, or corporation or that shall willfully refuse to submit to the Board or to any of its authorized agents, for the purpose of inspection and taking copies, any documentary evidence of any such person, firm, or corporation in his possession or within his control, shall be deemed guilty of a felony. Such person shall be subject, upon conviction in any court of competent jurisdiction, to a fine of not more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or to imprisonment for a term of not more than three (3) years, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

(2) If any person, firm, or corporation required by this act to file any annual or special report shall fail so to do within the time fixed by the Board for filing the same, and such failure shall continue for thirty (30) days after notice of such default, such person, firm, or corporation shall forfeit to this state the sum of One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) for each and every day of the continuance of such failure, which forfeiture shall be payable into the treasury of this state, and shall be recoverable in a civil suit in the name of the state brought in the county where the person, firm, or corporation has his or its principal office or in any county in which he or it shall do business. It shall be the duty of the various district attorneys, under the direction of the Attorney General of this state, to prosecute for the recovery of such forfeitures. The costs and expenses of such prosecution shall be paid out of the appropriation for the expenses of the courts of this state.

(3) Any officer or employee of this state who shall make public any information obtained by the Board without its authority, unless directed by a court, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), or by imprisonment not exceeding one (1) year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

Added by Laws 1968, c. 63, § 28, emerg. eff. March 19, 1968. Amended by Laws 1997, c. 133, § 91, eff. July 1, 1999; Laws 1999, 1st Ex.Sess., c. 5, § 29, eff. July 1, 1999.

NOTE: Laws 1998, 1st Ex.Sess., c. 2, § 23 amended the effective date of Laws 1997, c. 133, § 91 from July 1, 1998, to July 1, 1999.