---
kind: "section"
citation: "12 U.S.C. § 617"
title: "12"
title_heading: "Banks and Banking"
number: "617"
heading: "Engaging in commerce or trade in commodities; price fixing; forfeiture of charter; acts forbidden to directors, officers, agents, or employees"
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/12/617"
units:
  - "Chapter 6 — Foreign Banking"
  - "Subchapter II — Organization of Corporations to Do Foreign Banking"
---

# §617. Engaging in commerce or trade in commodities; price fixing; forfeiture of charter; acts forbidden to directors, officers, agents, or employees


No [corporation](/usc/12/2277a.md?p=2) organized under this subchapter shall engage in commerce or trade in commodities except as specifically provided in this subchapter, nor shall it, either directly or indirectly, [control](/usc/12/24a.md?p=g-1) or fix or attempt to [control](/usc/12/24a.md?p=g-1) or fix the price of any such commodities. The charter of any [corporation](/usc/12/2277a.md?p=2) violating this provision shall be subject to forfeiture in the manner provided in this subchapter. It shall be unlawful for any [director](/usc/12/2279bb.md?p=3), officer, agent, or employee of any such [corporation](/usc/12/2277a.md?p=2) to use or to conspire to use the [credit](/usc/12/5481.md?p=7), the [funds](/usc/12/4702.md?p=10), or the power of the [corporation](/usc/12/2277a.md?p=2) to fix or [control](/usc/12/24a.md?p=g-1) the price of any such commodities, and any such [person](/usc/12/5481.md?p=19) violating this provision shall be liable to a fine of not less than $1,000 and not exceeding $5,000 or imprisonment not less than one year and not exceeding five years, or both, in the discretion of the court.


## Source credit

(Dec. 23, 1913, ch. 6, § 25A (par.), formerly § 25(a), as added Dec. 24, 1919, ch. 18, 41 Stat. 378; renumbered § 25A, Pub. L. 102–242, title I, § 142(e)(2), Dec. 19, 1991, 105 Stat. 2281.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### References in Text

This subchapter, referred to in text, was in the original “this section”, meaning section 25A of act Dec. 23, 1913, which is classified to this subchapter (§ 611 et seq.).

### Codification

Section is comprised of par. 9 (undesignated) of section 25A of act Dec. 23, 1913, which comprises this subchapter. For complete classification of section 25A of this Act, see Codification note set out under section 611 of this title.