§ 140A.102.Injunctive Relief; Other Remedies

The longest and most consequential section in the chapter.

Subsection (a) is the interim armoury. A court may issue a temporary restraining order, temporary or permanent injunction, a receivership, a constructive trust, and prejudgment writs of attachment for freezing, preserving, and disgorging assets — or any other order the court considers proper.

Prejudgment attachment is the significant power. Assets can be frozen before liability is decided, which is what makes a judgment collectable against an operation that would otherwise move the money.

Subsection (b) supplies eight final remedies. Divestiture of any direct or indirect interest in an enterprise; reasonable restrictions on future activities or investments, including a prohibition on the type of endeavor that produced the offense, to the extent the constitutions permit; dissolution or reorganization of the enterprise; recovery of fees, expenses, investigation costs; payment of the gain acquired or maintained; a civil penalty up to $250,000 for each separately alleged and proven act; damages to the state for material damage; and use of attached property to satisfy the award.

Subsection (e) is unusual and worth reading. In fixing damages to the state the court considers lost tax revenue, unpaid unemployment taxes, unpaid licensing and regulatory fees, and medical and counseling costs the state incurred for victims.

That is the state suing as a party that was itself damaged — by an untaxed illegal economy and by the cost of caring for the people it harmed.

Three limits close the section. The chapter is not an exclusive remedy; the Code of Criminal Procedure forfeiture provisions apply; and no remedy may impair a security interest in property subject to a bona fide lien.