Every person who shall forge, alter, counterfeit, simulate, or falsely represent, or shall without proper authority use, any license issued by the Secretary of Agriculture, or his designated representative, under this chapter, or who shall violate or fail to comply with any provision of section 250 of this title, or who shall issue or utter a false or fraudulent receipt or certificate, or furnish false or fraudulent information to a central filing system maintained under section 259 of this title, or change in any manner an original receipt or certificate subsequently to issuance by a licensee, or any person who, without lawful authority, shall convert to his own use, or use for purposes of securing a loan, or remove from a licensed warehouse contrary to this chapter or the regulations promulgated thereunder, any agricultural products stored or to be stored in such warehouse, and for which licensed receipts have been or are to be issued, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not more than $10,000, or double the value of the products involved if such double value exceeds $10,000, or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both, in the discretion of the court, and the owner of the agricultural products so converted, used, or removed may, in the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture, be reimbursed for the value thereof out of any fine collected hereunder, by check drawn on the Treasury at the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture for the value of such products to the extent that such owner has not otherwise been reimbursed. Any person who shall draw with intent to deceive, a false sample of, or who shall willfully mutilate or falsely represent a sample drawn under this chapter, or who shall classify, grade, or weigh fraudulently, any agricultural products stored or to be stored under the provisions of this chapter, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof fined not more than $500, or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both, in the discretion of the court.
(Aug. 11, 1916, ch. 313, pt. C, §30, 39 Stat. 490; Feb. 23, 1923, ch. 106, 42 Stat. 1285; Mar. 2, 1931, ch. 366, §10, 46 Stat. 1465; Pub. L. 101–624, title V, §508(b), Nov. 28, 1990, 104 Stat. 3443.)
1990—Pub. L. 101–624 inserted “or furnish false or fraudulent information to a central filing system maintained under section 259 of this title,”.
1931—Act Mar. 2, 1931, in first sentence inserted “, or his designated representative,” after “Secretary of Agriculture” and “or change in any manner an original receipt or certificate subsequently to issuance by licensee” after “certificate”, and substituted “ten” for “one”.
1923—Act Feb. 23, 1923, amended section generally.
Amendment by Pub. L. 101–624 effective beginning with the 1991 crop of an agricultural commodity, with provision for prior crops, see section 1171 of Pub. L. 101–624, set out as a note under section 1421 of this title.