Any person, firm, association or corporation engaged in the business of purchasing and selling as broker or dealer, stocks, bonds or other evidences of debt of corporations, companies or associations who, knowing that he or it is insolvent, accepts or receives from a customer ignorant of such broker's or dealer's insolvency, money, stocks, bonds or other evidences of debt belonging to the customer otherwise than in liquidation of, or as security for, an existing indebtedness, is guilty of a misdemeanor. Any person, firm, association or corporation shall be deemed insolvent within the meaning of this section whenever the aggregate of his or its property shall not, at a fair valuation, be sufficient in amount to pay his or its debts.
New York Legal Code