375.1054. Prohibited acts--violation, penalty.
Prohibited acts--violation, penalty.
375.1054. 1. No director or officer of an insurer shall, directly orindirectly:
(1) Make or cause to be made a materially false or misleadingstatement to an accountant in connection with any audit, review, orcommunication required under sections 375.1025 to 375.1062; or
(2) Omit to state, or cause another person to omit to state, anymaterial fact necessary in order to make statements made, in light of thecircumstances under which the statements were made, not misleading to anaccountant in connection with any audit, review, or communication requiredunder sections 375.1025 to 375.1062.
2. No officer or director of an insurer, or any other person actingunder the direction thereof, shall directly or indirectly take any actionto coerce, manipulate, mislead, or fraudulently influence any accountantengaged in the performance of an audit under sections 375.1025 to 375.1062if such person knew or should have known that the action, if successful,could result in rendering the insurer's financial statements materiallymisleading.
3. For purposes of subsection 2 of this section, actions that, "ifsuccessful, could result in rendering the insurer's financial statementsmaterially misleading" include, but are not limited to, actions taken atany time with respect to the professional engagement period to coerce,manipulate, mislead, or fraudulently influence an accountant:
(1) To issue or reissue a report on an insurer's financial statementsthat is not warranted in the circumstances, due to material violations ofstatutory accounting principles prescribed by the director, generallyaccepted auditing standards, or other professional or regulatory standards;
(2) Not to perform audit, review, or other procedures required bygenerally accepted auditing standards or other professional standards;
(3) Not to withdraw an issued report; or
(4) Not to communicate matters to an insurer's audit committee.
4. Any violation of any provision of this section is a level threeviolation under section 374.049, RSMo.
(L. 2009 H.B. 577)