Selling a catalytic converter in Oklahoma

Who may sell a detached converter

Automotive catalytic converters are named in the regulated items list (§ 11-93(C)(13)), which also covers manhole covers, street and traffic signs, guard rails, electric light poles and transmission cable, heavy copper wire, burnt copper wire, funeral markers, historical markers, railroad equipment, marked utility and cemetery metal, condensing and evaporating coils, fuel containers, marked beer kegs, metal bleachers, oilfield machinery, car wash fittings, and remote storage batteries (§ 11-93(C)(1) to (16)).

The seller's route in is documentary rather than by license. It is unlawful for a licensed scrap metal dealer to purchase a regulated item without obtaining proof that the seller owns or is authorized to sell the property, by evidence of a receipt of purchase, a bill of sale, a contract, or other documentation, and requiring the seller to sign the written declaration § 11-92(E) prescribes, or else obtaining proof that the seller is an exempted seller or an employee of one (§ 11-93(A)(1) to (3)). An exempted seller is any person, firm, business, or governmental entity that produces or otherwise acquires regulated scrap metal in the normal course of business, including a licensed mechanical, electrical, or plumbing contractor, a licensed scrap metal dealer, a farm-use tax permit holder, a manufacturer, a distributor, a retailer with a current sales tax permit, or any state-recognized business entity (§ 11-91(5)).

The buyer needs two credentials and a place. A person may not advertise, act, offer to act, hold out, or engage in business as a scrap metal dealer without a scrap metal dealer license issued by the Department (§ 11-97), and any person desiring to become a scrap metal dealer also has to obtain a sales tax permit from the Oklahoma Tax Commission for each scrap metal yard owned or operated (§ 11-96(A)). The license application carries the applicant's name and residence, the business address, legal proof of ownership or lease of the location, proof of a dedicated telephone line, proof of general liability insurance, proof of a current Oklahoma Pollutant Discharge Elimination System discharge permit, and disclosure of any felony conviction substantially related to scrap metal dealing, with a full set of fingerprints and a photograph, a hundred dollar application fee, and a hundred dollar investigative fee (§ 11-98(A), (C), (D)). A license runs one year and is valid only at the location specified (§ 11-98(E), (F)).

What the buyer must record

Every dealer keeps a separate book, record, or authorized electronic system recording six things from any seller of any amount of scrap metal (§ 11-92(A)). They are a legible photocopy of the seller's driver license or government-provided photo identification issued by the United States government, Oklahoma, or another state, or other federally recognized identification containing the name and date of birth, with an address supplied separately where the identification carries none (§ 11-92(A)(1)); the vehicle description and license tag number, or the vehicle identification number where no plate is affixed, if a vehicle was used to transport the material (§ 11-92(A)(2)); the date and place of the transaction and the dealer's transaction number (§ 11-92(A)(3)); a description of the items sold and their weight (§ 11-92(A)(4)); and whether the scrap metal is in wire, cable, bar, rod, sheet, or tube form (§ 11-92(A)(5)).

The sixth item is imagery, on its own clock. The record holds a digital image of the items purchased and a digital image of the seller, containing depictions that clearly identify the items sold and captured in the common JPEG format, retained by the purchaser for a minimum of ninety days from the date of purchase (§ 11-92(A)(6)). The written record itself is retained for no less than two years from the date of the transaction and made available at any time to any person authorized by law to inspect it (§ 11-92(C)).

The declaration of ownership is a set form. The dealer obtains from each seller of a regulated item, or from a parent or guardian on behalf of a minor, a written declaration of ownership with the seller's legible signature, appearing on the bill of sale or transaction ticket and completed in the purchaser's presence at the time of the transaction, affirming that the signer is the rightful owner or an authorized representative of the rightful owner, under penalty of perjury under the laws of Oklahoma (§ 11-92(E)). Buying from a minor under sixteen without first obtaining a parent's or guardian's written consent is unlawful, and that consent is kept with the record (§ 11-92(D)). On request by a law enforcement agency the dealer reports all purchases in writing within forty-eight hours (§ 11-92(F)), and municipalities may designate the reporting method and format, with the Department designating an internet-based method for areas with no local designation (§ 11-92(B)).

How you are paid

Oklahoma allows cash up to a ceiling and then names the payee. A scrap metal dealer shall not enter into any cash transaction in excess of one thousand dollars in payment for the purchase of scrap metal listed in § 11-93(C), which includes converters, unless the transaction is made with an exempted seller (§ 11-92(H)). Payment by check shall be issued and made payable only to the seller of the scrap metal whose identification information was obtained under the records section, so the check has to match the photocopy in the book (§ 11-92(H)).

Two arrangements sit outside the records section entirely, and both involve exempted sellers. Material a dealer collects for an exempted seller in a motor vehicle registered with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is exempt, as is material provided by an exempted seller with a check made payable to that seller's company (§ 11-92(I)(1), (2)). Knowingly providing false information with respect to those exemptions carries its own felony grade (§ 11-94(C)).

Nothing in the Act makes a dealer wait before paying or hold the metal. The catchline of § 11-92 lists a holding period among its topics, between records of data and unlawful activities, but the operative text of the section contains none, and catchlines are not law. There is no waiting period on a converter, no tagging requirement, and no law enforcement hold procedure in §§ 11-90 to 11-99. The clocks that exist are ninety days for the digital images (§ 11-92(A)(6)) and two years for the record (§ 11-92(C)). One condition is unusual though: dealers shall not purchase any regulated item that is not delivered in a motor vehicle (§ 11-93(B)).

Penalties

The criminal ladder climbs on repetition. Any person found in violation of any provision of the Act, apart from the specific offenses in subsections B through D, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than two thousand five hundred dollars per offense on a first conviction; a second violation is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars per offense or up to six months in the county jail; and a third or subsequent violation is a Class D3 felony punishable by a fine of not more than ten thousand dollars per offense, imprisonment as provided in § 20P of title 21, or both (§ 11-94(A)). Acting as a scrap metal dealer without a license or a sales tax permit is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, with each day of operation a separate offense (§ 11-94(B)).

The permits are the other lever. Every dealer convicted of a violation is reported to the Oklahoma Tax Commission by the clerk of the court (§ 11-94(E)), and the Commission shall revoke the sales tax permit of any person convicted of three separate violations, with no new permit for a year after revocation (§ 11-94(F), § 11-95(B)(2)). The Commission may also cancel or suspend a permit for up to thirty days for a violation relating to the purchase of copper, aluminum, or other regulated scrap metal, after ten days' notice and a hearing, and may seek an injunction to stop a suspended dealer from continuing to operate, with a five thousand dollar bond required to keep trading during an appeal (§ 11-95(A), (B)(1), (C)).

The Department has a parallel administrative track. It may suspend, cancel, revoke, or refuse reissuance of a scrap metal dealer license, after opportunity for a public hearing, for fraud or deceit in obtaining or renewing a license, acting as a dealer without one, aiding or abetting another person in doing so, or violating any provision of the Act (§ 11-99(A)(1) to (4)). It may assess an administrative penalty of not less than one hundred and not more than ten thousand dollars for each violation, with each action or each day a violation continues capable of being a separate violation, and an administrative assessment does not prevent a court from later imposing the maximum civil or criminal penalties (§ 11-99(B), (D)).

What this means when you sell to us

Bring a government photo ID, since Oklahoma requires us to photocopy it and to record your name and date of birth from it, plus an address if the card does not show one (§ 11-92(A)(1)). Bring proof you own the converters, meaning a purchase receipt, a bill of sale, a contract, or similar documentation, and you will sign the state's declaration of ownership on the transaction ticket, under penalty of perjury, in front of us (§ 11-93(A), § 11-92(E)). Businesses can instead show they are an exempted seller (§ 11-91(5)). We photograph you and the units as JPEG images and keep the record for two years (§ 11-92(A)(6), (C)). Cash tops out at one thousand dollars per transaction, and a check is made out only to the name on the identification you gave us (§ 11-92(H)).