SB1220: Securities Act; sale of business doctrine.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That 13.1-501 and 13.1-522 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted as follows:
13.1-501. Definitions.
A. When used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
"Agent" means any individual who, as a director, officer, partner, associate, employee or sales representative of a broker-dealer or issuer, effects or undertakes to effect sales of securities, otherwise than on behalf of (i) an issuer either offering a security exempted by subdivision 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, or 10 of subsection A of 13.1-514 or effecting a transaction with a "qualified purchaser" as defined by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission or (ii) a broker-dealer effecting in this Commonwealth transactions limited to those transactions described in 15 (h) (2) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
"Broker-dealer" means any person engaged in the business of selling any type of security other than an interest or unit in a condominium as defined in subdivision (c) of 55-79.2 or cooperative housing corporation for the account of others or for his own account otherwise than with or through a broker-dealer or agent, but does not include an issuer or an agent. A bank or trust subsidiary formed under Article 3.1 ( 6.1-32.1 et seq.) of Chapter 2 of Title 6.1 shall not be considered to be a broker-dealer because the bank or trust subsidiary formed under Article 3.1 ( 6.1-32.1 et seq.) of Chapter 2 of Title 6.1 engages in any one or more of the activities specified in subparagraph (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (viii), (ix) or (x) of 3 (a) (4) (B) or in 3 (a) (5) (C) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 under the conditions described in connection with such laws.
"Commission" means the State Corporation Commission.
"Control" means the possession, directly or indirectly, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management and policies of a person, whether through the ownership of voting securities, by contract, or otherwise.
"Cooperative housing corporation" means a corporation in which each member is entitled, solely by reason of his membership in the corporation, to occupy for dwelling purposes a house or an apartment in a building owned or leased or to be owned or leased by the corporation or to purchase a dwelling constructed or to be constructed by the corporation. The corporation shall not be or intend to be engaged in any business or activity other than the ownership, leasing, management, or construction of residential properties for its members, except to the extent that such business or activity is incidental to the ownership, leasing, management, or construction of residential properties. The securities of the corporation shall be issued only in connection with the sale or lease of dwelling units to persons who are or thereupon become members of the corporation and shall be transferable by the purchasers only in connection with the transfer of such dwelling units or leases to other persons who are or thereupon become members.
"Federal covered advisor" means any person who is registered or required to be registered under 203 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 as an "investment adviser."
"Federal covered security" means any security described as a "covered security" in 18 of the Securities Act of 1933.
"Guaranteed" means guaranteed as to payment of principal, interest or dividends.
"Investment advisor" means any person who, for compensation, engages in the business of advising others, either directly or through publications or writings, as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing, or selling securities, or who, for compensation and as part of a regular business, issues or promulgates analyses or reports concerning securities. Investment advisor also includes financial planners and other persons who, as an integral component of other financially related services, provide the foregoing investment advisory services to others for compensation and as a part of a business or who hold themselves out as providing the foregoing investment advisory services to others for compensation. "Investment advisor" does not include (i) an investment advisor representative; (ii) a bank, a bank holding company as defined in the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 which is not an investment company, a trust subsidiary organized under Article 3.1 ( 6.1-32.1 et seq.) of Chapter 2 of Title 6.1, a savings institution, a credit union, or a trust company; (iii) a lawyer, accountant, engineer, or teacher whose performance of these services is solely incidental to the practice of his profession; (iv) a broker-dealer or his agent whose performance of these services is solely incidental to the conduct of his business as a broker-dealer and who receives no special compensation for them; (v) a publisher of any newspaper, news column, newsletter, news magazine, or business or financial publication or service, whether communicated in hard copy form, or by electronic means, or otherwise, that does not consist of the rendering of advice on the basis of the specific situation of each client; (vi) any person that is a federal covered advisor; or (vii) such other persons not within the intent of this definition, as the Commission may designate by rule or determine by order pursuant to 13.1-525.
"Investment advisor representative" means any partner, officer, director of, or a person occupying a similar status or performing similar functions, or other individual, except clerical or ministerial personnel, who is employed by or associated with (a) an investment advisor registered or required to be registered under this chapter and who does any of the following: (i) makes any recommendations or otherwise renders advice regarding securities, (ii) manages accounts or portfolios of clients, (iii) determines which recommendations or advice regarding securities should be given, (iv) prepares reports or analyses concerning securities, (v) solicits, offers or negotiates for the sale of or sells investment advisory services, or (vi) supervises employees who perform any of the foregoing; or (b) a federal covered advisor, subject to the limitations of 203 A of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as the Commission may designate by rule or order. "Investment advisor representative" does not include such other persons employed by or associated with either an investment advisor or a federal covered advisor not within the intent of this definition as the Commission may designate by rule or determine by order pursuant to 13.1-525.
"Issuer" means any person who issues or proposes to issue a security, except that:
1. With respect to certificates of deposit, voting trust certificates or collateral trust certificates, and with respect to certificates of interest or shares in an unincorporated investment trust not having a board of directors or persons performing similar functions, or of the fixed, restricted management or unit type, the term "issuer" means the person or persons performing the acts and assuming the duties of manager;
2. With respect to equipment trust certificates or like securities, "issuer" means the person by whom the equipment is or is to be used;
3. With respect to oil, gas or other mineral leases, rights or royalties or interests therein, "issuer" means the owner of any such lease, right, royalty or interest (whether whole or fractional) who creates financial interests therein for the purpose of offering to more than five persons.
"Nonissuer distribution" means any transaction not directly or indirectly for the benefit of the issuer.
"Offer" includes every attempt or offer to dispose of, or solicitation of an offer to buy, a security or interest in a security for value.
"Person" means an individual, a partnership, a corporation, an unincorporated association, a government, a subdivision of a government, or a trust in which the interests of the beneficiaries are evidenced by securities.
"Sale" or "sell" includes every contract of sale of, contract to sell, or disposition of, a security or interest in a security for value.
"Sale of business transaction" means the transfer of all of, or a controlling interest in, the ownership interests of an entity incident to the sale of a commercial venture to one or more purchasers who, directly or indirectly, will manage or direct the management of the commercial venture and who do not acquire the commercial venture's ownership interests primarily as an investment in a common venture premised on a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others.
"Securities Act of 1933," "Securities Exchange Act of 1934," "Bank Holding Company Act of 1956," "Investment Advisers Act of 1940," and "Investment Company Act of 1940" mean the federal statutes of those names as now or hereafter amended.
"Security" means any note; stock; treasury stock;
bond; debenture; evidence of indebtedness; certificate of interest or
participation in any profit-sharing agreement; collateral trust certificate;
preorganization certificate of subscription; transferable share; investment
contract; voting-trust certificate; certificate of deposit for a security; oil,
gas or other mineral lease, right or royalty, or any interest therein; or, in
general, any interest or instrument commonly known as a "security,"
or any certificate of interest or participation in, temporary or interim
certificate for, guarantee of, or warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase,
any of the foregoing. However, this definition shall not apply to any:
1. Any insurance policy, endowment policy, annuity contract, variable annuity contract or any contract or agreement in relation to and in consequence of any such policy or contract, issued by an insurance company subject to the supervision or control of the Commission's Bureau of Insurance when the form of such policy or contract has been duly filed with the Bureau as now or hereafter required by law; or
2. Any ownership interest in an entity when all of, or a controlling interest in, such entity is transferred in a sale of business transaction, regardless of whether the ownership interest bears the label "stock" and (i) possesses the right to receive dividends contingent upon an apportionment of profits; (ii) is negotiable; (iii) is able to be pledged or hypothecated; (iv) confers voting rights in proportion to the number of shares owned; and (v) is able to appreciate in value.
"State" means any state, territory or possession of the United States, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
B. For the purposes of Article 4 ( 13.1-507 et seq.) of this chapter, the terms defined in this section shall not include negotiations or agreements between the issuer and any underwriter or among underwriters; or any transaction by the pledgee of a security unless made directly or indirectly for the benefit of the issuer.
C. Any security given or delivered with, or as a bonus on account of, any purchase of securities or any other thing shall be deemed to constitute part of the subject of the purchase and to have been offered and sold for value.
D. Every sale or offer of a warrant or right to purchase or subscribe to another security of the same issuer or of another person, and every sale or offer, of a security which gives the holder thereof a present or future right or privilege to convert the security into another security of the same issuer or of another person, shall be deemed to include an offer of such other security.
13.1-522. Civil liabilities.
A. Any person who: (i) sells a security in violation of 13.1-502, 13.1-504 A, 13.1-507 (i) or (ii), 13.1-510 (e) or (f), or (ii) sells a security by means of an untrue statement of a material fact or any omission to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statement made, in the light of the circumstances under which they were made, not misleading (the purchaser not knowing of such untruth or omission), and who shall not sustain the burden of proof that he did not know, and in the exercise of reasonable care could not have known, of such untruth or omission, shall be liable to the person purchasing such security from him who may sue either at law or in equity to recover the consideration paid for such security, together with interest thereon at the annual rate of six percent, costs, and reasonable attorneys' fees, less the amount of any income received on the security, upon the tender of such security, or for the substantial equivalent in damages if he no longer owns the security. This subsection shall not apply with respect to any sale of business transaction.
B. Any person who (i) engages in the business of advising others, for compensation, either directly or through publications or writings, as to the value of securities or as to the advisability of investing in, purchasing, or selling securities, or who, for compensation and as a part of a regular business, issues or promulgates analyses or reports concerning securities in willful and material violation of 13.1-503, subsection A of 13.1-504, or of any rule or order under 13.1-505.1, or (ii) receives, directly or indirectly, any consideration from another person for advice as to the value of securities or their purchase or sale, whether through the issuance of analyses, reports or otherwise and employs any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud such other person or engages in any act, practice or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit on such other person, shall be liable to that person who may sue either at law or in equity to recover the consideration paid for such advice and any loss due to such advice, together with interest thereon at the annual rate of six percent from the date of payment of the consideration plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees, less the amount of any income received from such advice and any other economic advantage.
C. Every person who directly or indirectly controls a person liable under subsection A or B of this section, including every partner, officer, or director of such a person, every person occupying a similar status or performing similar functions, every employee of such a person who materially aids in the conduct giving rise to the liability, and every broker-dealer, investment advisor, investment advisor representative or agent who materially aids in such conduct shall be liable jointly and severally with and to the same extent as such person, unless able to sustain the burden of proof that he did not know, and in the exercise of reasonable care could not have known, of the existence of the facts by reason of which the liability is alleged to exist. There shall be contribution as in cases of contract among the several persons so liable.
D. No suit shall be maintained to enforce any liability created under this section unless brought within two years after the transaction upon which it is based; provided, that, if any person liable by reason of subsection A, B or C of this section makes a written offer, before suit is brought, to refund the consideration paid and any loss due to any investment advice provided by such person, together with interest thereon at the annual rate of six percent, less the amount of any income received on the security or resulting from such advice, or to pay damages if the purchaser no longer owns the security, no purchaser or user of the investment advisory service shall maintain a suit under this section who has refused or failed to accept such offer within thirty days of its receipt.
E. Any tender specified in this section may be made at any time before entry of judgment.
F. Any condition, stipulation or provision binding any person acquiring any security or receiving any investment advice to waive compliance with any provision of this chapter or of any rule or order thereunder shall be void.
G. The rights and remedies provided by this chapter shall be in addition to any and all other rights and remedies that may exist at law or in equity.