                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

AUTHORITY OF COMMISSIONER (§ 3.2-5416)

The Commissioner shall have power:

1. To gather and compile information concerning and, to investigate the
organization, business, conduct, practices, and management of any person engaged
in intrastate commerce, and the relation thereof to other persons; and

2. To require, by general or special orders, persons engaged in intrastate
commerce, or any class of them, or any of them, to file with the Commissioner in
such form as the Commissioner may prescribe, annual or special, or both annual
and special, reports or answers in writing to specific questions furnishing the
Commissioner such information as he may require as to the organization,
business, conduct, practices, management, and relation to other persons, of the
person filing such reports or answers in writing. Such reports and answers shall
be made under oath, or otherwise, as the Commissioner may prescribe, and shall
be filed with the Commissioner within such reasonable period as the Commissioner
may prescribe, unless additional time be granted in any case by the
Commissioner.
			a. For the purpose of this chapter the Commissioner shall at all reasonable
times have access to, for the purpose of examination, and the right to copy any
documentary evidence of any person 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 relating to any matter
under investigation. The Commissioner may sign subpoenas and may administer
oaths and affirmations, examine witnesses, and receive evidence.
			b. 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 Commissioner may invoke the aid of an
appropriate circuit court to require the attendance and testimony of witnesses
and the production of documentary evidence.
			c. Any circuit court within the jurisdiction where such inquiry is carried on
may, in case of contumacy or refusal to obey a subpoena issued to any person,
issue an order requiring such person to appear before the Commissioner 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 such court as a contempt thereof.
			d. The Commissioner may order testimony to be taken by deposition in any
proceeding or investigation pending under this chapter at any stage of such
proceeding or investigation. Such depositions may be taken before any person
designated by the Commissioner and having the 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 before the
Commissioner as hereinbefore provided.
			e. Witnesses summoned before the Commissioner shall be paid the same fees and
mileage that are paid witnesses in the courts of the Commonwealth, and witnesses
whose depositions are taken and the persons taking the same shall severally be
entitled to the same fees as are paid for the like services in such courts.
			f. No person shall be excused from attending and testifying or from producing
books, papers, schedules of charges, contracts, agreements, or other documentary
evidence before the Commissioner or in obedience to the subpoena of the
Commissioner, whether such subpoena be signed or issued by him or his delegate,
or in any cause or proceeding, criminal or otherwise, based upon or growing out
of any alleged violation of this chapter, 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 individual shall be prosecuted or
subjected to a 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 individual so testifying shall not be
exempt from prosecution and punishment for perjury committed in so testifying.
			g. Any person that shall 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 of the Commissioner is guilty of a Class 1
misdemeanor.
			h. Any person 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 chapter, or
that shall willfully make, or cause to be made, any false entry in any account,
record, or memorandum kept by any person subject to this chapter 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 or that shall willfully
remove out of the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth, or willfully mutilate, alter
or by any other means falsify any documentary evidence of any person subject to
this chapter or that shall willfully refuse to submit to the Commissioner, for
the purpose of inspection and taking copies, any documentary evidence of any
person subject to this chapter in his possession or within his control, is
guilty of a Class 6 felony.
			i. If any person required by this chapter to file any annual or special
report shall fail so to do within the time fixed by the Commissioner for filing
the same, and such failure shall continue for 30 days after notice of such
default, such person shall forfeit to the Commonwealth the sum of $100 for each
and every day of the continuance of such failure, which forfeiture shall be
payable into the treasury of the Commonwealth, and shall be recoverable in a
civil suit in the name of the Commonwealth brought in the city or county where
the person has his principal office or in any city or county where he shall do
business. It shall be the duty of the Attorney General 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 Department.
			j. Any officer or employee of the Commonwealth who shall make public any
information obtained by the Commissioner, without his authority, unless directed
by a court, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

HISTORY: 1970, c. 290, § 3.1-884.32; 2008, c. 860.