(a) No salesperson shall solicit prospective purchasers on behalf of a telephonic seller who is not currently registered with the Consumer Protection Division pursuant to this chapter. Any salesperson who violates this section shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

(b) Except as provided in subsection (a) of this section, any person, including, but not limited to, the seller, a salesperson, agent or representative of the seller, or an independent contractor, who willfully violates any provision of this chapter or who directly or indirectly employs any device, scheme, or artifice to deceive in connection with the offer or sale by any telephonic seller, or who willfully, directly or indirectly engages in any act, practice, or course of business which operates or would operate as fraud or deceit upon any person in connection with a sale by any telephonic seller shall be, upon conviction, guilty of a Class D felony.

(c) Every person who controls a seller liable under this section, or a salesperson liable under subsection (a) of this section, every partner, officer, or director of such a seller or salesperson, every person occupying a similar status or performing a similar function, and every employee of such a seller or salesperson who materially aids in the sale or attempted sale are also liable jointly and severally with and to the same extent as the seller or salesperson, unless the nonseller or nonsalesperson who is so liable sustains the burden of proof that he or she did not know and in the exercise of reasonable care could not have known of the existence of the facts by reason of which the liability is alleged to exist. There is contribution as in cases of contract among the several persons so liable.