LD 509
pg. 9
Page 8 of 183 An Act To Adopt the Maine Uniform Securities Act Page 10 of 183
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LR 441
Item 1

 
after the contract of sale" statute of limitations. The new Act has
two statute of limitations provisions. Section 509(j)(1) limits
violations of registration provisions to "one year after the
violation occurred." Section 509(j)(2) follows the pattern of
federal securities law statutes of limitations, as amended in July
2002 by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and limits fraud violations to the
earlier of "two years after the discovery of the facts constituting
the violation or five years after such violation."

 
The derivative liability provision in Section 509(g) is not
intended to change the predicates for liability for one who
"materially aids" violative conduct.

 
(7) Several changes are made in Article 6, which concerns
Administration and Judicial Review. Most are technical in nature.
A new authorization for the administrator to develop and
implement investor education initiatives has been added in
Sections 601(d) and (e).

 
Considerable attention was devoted to enforcement of the Act.
The 1956 Act Section 408 was a slender provision providing for
injunctions. Sections 603 and 604, in contrast, provide a broad
array of civil and administrative techniques including asset
freezes, rescission orders, and civil penalties. Under Section
604 the administrator may issue a cease and desist order. Two
other enforcement provisions in the Act are (1) stop orders in
Sections 306(d) through (f), and (2) broker-dealer, agent,
investment adviser, and investment adviser representative
denials, revocations, suspensions, withdrawal, restrictions,
conditions, or limitations of registration in Section 412. Each
of the enforcement provisions in the Act includes both summary
process and due process requirements either through judicial
process or guarantees of appropriate notice, opportunity for
hearing, and findings of facts and conclusions of law in a
written record.

 
Section 607 is a new provision that clarifies the scope of
nonpublic records and the administrator's discretion to disclose
in light of the extensive development of freedom of information
and open records laws since the 1956 Act was adopted.

 
The jurisdiction and service of process provisions, Sections
610 and 611, generally follow Section 414 of the 1956 Act, but
have been modernized to take into account electronic
communications.

 
(8) Section 103 preserves the ability of the Act to reflect
later amendments of specified federal statutes and rules to the
extent they are preemptive or this is otherwise permitted by
state law.


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