(1) It shall be unlawful for any person, in connection with the offer, sale, or purchase of any security, directly or indirectly:

(b) To make any untrue statement of a material fact or to omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in the light of the circumstances under which they are made, not misleading; or

(c) To engage in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person.

(2) It shall be unlawful for any person who receives any consideration from another person primarily for advising the other person as to the value of securities or their purchase or sale, whether through the issuance of analyses or reports or otherwise:

(b) To engage in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person;

(c) To knowingly sell any security to or purchase any security from a client while acting as principal for his or her own account, act as a broker for a person other than the client, or knowingly effect any sale or purchase of any security for the account of the client, without disclosing to the client in writing before the completion of the transaction the capacity in which he or she is acting and obtaining the consent of the client to the transaction. This subdivision shall not apply to any transaction involving a broker-dealer's client if the broker-dealer is not acting as an investment adviser in the transaction;

(d) To engage in dishonest or unethical practices as the director may define by rule and regulation or order; or

(e) In the solicitation of advisory clients, to make any untrue statement of a material fact or to omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which they are made, not misleading.

(3) Except as may be permitted by rule and regulation or order of the director, it shall be unlawful for any investment adviser or investment adviser representative to enter into, extend, or renew any investment advisory contract:

(a) Which provides for the compensation of the investment adviser or investment adviser representative on the basis of a share of capital gains upon or capital appreciation of the funds or any portion of the funds of any client;

(b) Unless the investment advisory contract prohibits in writing the assignment of the contract by the investment adviser or investment adviser representative without the consent of the other party to the contract; and

(c) Unless the investment advisory contract provides in writing that if the investment adviser is a partnership or a limited liability company, the other party to the contract shall be notified of any change in the membership of the partnership or limited liability company within a reasonable time after the change.

(4) Subdivision (3)(a) of this section shall not prohibit an investment advisory contract which provides for compensation based upon the total value of a fund averaged over a definite period or as of definite dates or taken as of a definite date. Assignment, as used in subdivision (3)(b) of this section, shall include any direct or indirect transfer or hypothecation of an investment advisory contract by the assignor or of a controlling block of the assignor's outstanding voting securities by a security holder of the assignor, except that if the investment adviser is a partnership or a limited liability company, no assignment of an investment advisory contract shall be considered to result from the death or withdrawal of a minority of the members of the investment adviser having only a minority interest in the business of the investment adviser or from the admission to the investment adviser of one or more members who, after admission, will be only a minority of the members and will have only a minority interest in the business.

(5) It shall be unlawful for any investment adviser or investment adviser representative to take or have custody of any securities or funds of any client if:

(a) The director by rule and regulation or order prohibits the taking or custody; or

(b) In the absence of any rule and regulation or order by the director, the investment adviser or investment adviser representative fails to notify the director that he or she has or may have custody.

(6) The director may by rule and regulation or order adopt and promulgate exemptions from subdivisions (2)(c), (3)(a), (3)(b), and (3)(c) of this section when the exemptions are consistent with the public interest and are within the purposes fairly intended by the Securities Act of Nebraska.

Source:Laws 1965, c. 549, § 2, p. 1766; Laws 1990, LB 938, § 1; Laws 1993, LB 216, § 2; Laws 1994, LB 884, § 11; Laws 2017, LB148, § 3.

Annotations

Proof of specific intent, evil motive, or knowledge that the law was being violated is not required to sustain a conviction under the Securities Act of Nebraska. State v. Jones, 235 Neb. 1, 453 N.W.2d 447 (1990).