STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10248
IN ASSEMBLY
May 15, 2024
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Zaccaro) --
read once and referred to the Committee on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the state finance law and the cannabis law, in relation
to authorizing a qui tam proceeding for civil violations of the canna-
bis law
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (h) of subdivision 1 of section 189 of the state
2 finance law, as amended by section 1 of part J of chapter 57 of the laws
3 of 2018, is amended to read as follows:
4 (h) knowingly conceals or knowingly and improperly avoids or decreases
5 an obligation to pay or transmit money or property to the state or a
6 local government, or conspires to do the same; or
7 (i) violates any civil provisions of section one hundred twenty-five
8 of the cannabis law;
9 shall be liable to the state or a local government, as applicable, for
10 a civil penalty of not less than six thousand dollars and not more than
11 twelve thousand dollars, as adjusted to be equal to the civil penalty
12 allowed under the federal False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. sec. 3729, et
13 seq., as amended, as adjusted for inflation by the Federal Civil Penal-
14 ties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended (28 U.S.C. 2461 note;
15 Pub. L. No. 101-410), plus three times the amount of all damages,
16 including consequential damages, which the state or local government
17 sustains because of the act of that person; provided, however, that the
18 civil penalty for violations of the cannabis law shall be as set forth
19 in section one hundred thirty-two of such chapter.
20 § 2. Subdivision 5 of section 138-a of the cannabis law, as amended by
21 section 14 of part G of chapter 55 of the laws of 2024, is amended to
22 read as follows:
23 5. request that the attorney general obtain judicial enforcement of an
24 order issued under subdivision one of this section or bring an action or
25 proceeding for any relief otherwise authorized under this chapter for a
26 violation of this chapter or bring an action or proceeding authorized
27 under section one hundred eighty-nine of the state finance law, includ-
28 ing the recovery of any applicable civil penalties;
29 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD15512-01-4
