111.28—Responsible supervision.
(a) General.
Every individual broker operating as a sole proprietor and every licensed member of a partnership that is a broker and every licensed officer of an association or corporation that is a broker must exercise responsible supervision and control (see § 111.1) over the transaction of the customs business of the sole proprietorship, partnership, association, or corporation.
(b) Employee information—
(1) Current employees—
Each broker must submit, in writing, to the director of each port at which the broker intends to transact customs business, a list of the names of persons currently employed by the broker at that port. The list of employees must be submitted upon issuance of a permit for an additional district under § 111.19, or upon the opening of an office at a port within a district for which the broker already has a permit, and before the broker begins to transact customs business as a broker at the port. For each employee, the broker also must provide the social security number, date and place of birth, current home address, last prior home address, and, if the employee has been employed by the broker for less than 3 years, the name and address of each former employer and dates of employment for the 3-year period preceding current employment with the broker. After the initial submission, an updated list, setting forth the name, social security number, date and place of birth, and current home address of each current employee, must be submitted with the status report required by § 111.30(d).
(ii) New employees.
In the case of a new employee, the broker must submit to the port director the written information required under paragraph (b)(1)(i) of this section within 10 calendar days after the new employee has been employed by the broker for 30 consecutive days.
(2) Terminated employees.
Within 30 calendar days after the termination of employment of any person employed longer than 30 consecutive days, the broker must submit the name of the terminated employee, in writing, to the director of the port at which the person was employed.
(3) Broker's responsibility.
Notwithstanding a broker's responsibility for providing the information required in paragraph (b)(1) of this section, in the absence of culpability by the broker, Customs will not hold him responsible for the accuracy of any information that is provided to the broker by the employee.
(c) Termination of qualifying member or officer.
In the case of an individual broker who is a qualifying member of a partnership for purposes of § 111.11(b) or who is a qualifying officer of an association or corporation for purposes of § 111.11(c)(2), that individual broker must immediately provide written notice to the Assistant Commissioner when his employment as a qualifying member or officer terminates and must send a copy of the written notice to the director of each port through which a permit has been granted to the partnership, association, or corporation.
(d) Change in ownership.
If the ownership of a broker changes and ownership shares in the broker are not publicly traded, the broker must immediately provide written notice of that fact to the Assistant Commissioner and must send a copy of the written notice to the director of each port through which a permit has been granted to the broker. When a change in ownership results in the addition of a new principal to the organization, and whether or not ownership shares in the broker are publicly traded, Customs reserves the right to conduct a background investigation on the new principal. The port director will notify the broker if Customs objects to the new principal, and the broker will be given a reasonable period of time to remedy the situation. If the investigation uncovers information which would have been the basis for a denial of an application for a broker's license and the principal's interest in the broker is not terminated to the satisfaction of the port director, suspension or revocation proceedings may be initiated under subpart D of this part. For purposes of this paragraph, a “principal” means any person having at least a 5 percent capital, beneficiary or other direct or indirect interest in the business of a broker.