Rhode Island § 7-14-1 - Suppression of Criminally Operated Businesses

§ 7-14-1. Forfeiture of charter and revocation of permit.

The attorney general is authorized to institute civil proceedings in the superior court to forfeit the charter of any corporation organized under the laws of this state and to revoke the permit authorizing any foreign corporation to carry on business in this state, when:

(1) Any of the corporate officers or any other person controlling the management or operation of the corporation, with the knowledge of the president and a majority of the board of directors or under such circumstances wherein the president and a majority of the directors should have knowledge, is a person engaged in organized gambling, organized traffic in narcotics, organized extortion, organized bribery, organized embezzlement, or organized prostitution, or who is connected directly or indirectly with organizations, syndicates, or criminal societies engaging in those activities; or

(2) A director, officer, employee, agent, or stockholder acting for, through, or on behalf of the corporation has, in conducting the corporation’s affairs, purposely engaged in a persistent course of gambling, unlawful traffic in narcotics, extortion, embezzlement, intimidation and coercion, bribery, prostitution, or other criminal conduct with the knowledge of the president and a majority of the board of directors or under circumstances where the president and a majority of the directors should have knowledge, with the intent to compel or induce other persons, firms, and corporations to deal with the corporation or to engage in any criminal conduct; and

(3) For the prevention of future illegal conduct of the same character, the public interest requires the charter of the corporation to be forfeited and the corporation to be dissolved or the permit to be revoked.