Spreading Fake News to Move Market Prices Is a Crime in Nevada
Nevada wrote an anti-fake-news law in 1911 — aimed at the mining-stock rumor mills of the Comstock era — and it's still on the books. The famous 'illegal to lie about the weather' claim, though? That one's a myth.
First, the debunk: weird-law listicles love to claim Nevada criminalizes false weather or crop reports. No such Nevada statute exists. That claim traces to a federal law — 18 U.S.C. § 2074, which prohibits impersonating official Weather Bureau forecasts — and got misattributed to states by writers who never checked. But Nevada does have a genuine archaic cousin sitting in the same neighborhood, and it's better than the myth.
NRS 205.440, "Publishing false statement to affect market price," comes straight out of the 1911 Crimes and Punishments Act: "Every person who, with intent to affect the market price of any property, shall put off, circulate or publish any false or misleading writing, statement or intelligence, is guilty of a gross misdemeanor." In 1911, Nevada was living through the mining-stock frenzy of the Comstock and Tonopah booms, where a well-placed rumor about a strike — or a salted mine — could swing share prices overnight. The Legislature responded with what amounts to a frontier-era securities-fraud and anti-fake-news law.
Remarkably, the statute isn't frozen in amber: the Legislature amended it as recently as 2013, and its language is broad enough to cover any "false or misleading writing, statement or intelligence" spread to move the price of any property. A 115-year-old law against market-moving misinformation reads as strangely current in the social-media age — even if prosecutors today would more likely reach for modern fraud statutes.
Current Penalty
Gross misdemeanor — up to 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
The Attorney's Take
Thomas Boley, Las Vegas Criminal Defense Attorney
“Notice how broad that language is: any false statement, about any property, with intent to affect its price. Old statutes with elastic wording never really die — prosecutors can stack them alongside modern fraud charges to add counts and leverage in plea negotiations. When I review a client's charging document, the throwaway counts built on obscure statutes are often where a case can be attacked first, because the state rarely expects to have to prove them.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
Verified against the primary source: 2026-07-02