In case of any willful or negligent violation of the provisions of section 117 of this title, the directors under whose administration the same may happen shall be jointly and severally liable, at any time within six years after paying such unlawful dividend, to the corporation and to its creditors, in the event of its dissolution or insolvency, to the full amount of the dividend unlawfully paid, with interest on the same from the time such liability accrued. Any director who may have been absent at the time when the act or resolution was adopted by which the unlawful dividends were subsequently paid, or who may have dissented from said act or resolution, may exonerate himself from such liability by causing his dissent to be entered at large on the books containing the minutes of the proceedings of the directors immediately after he has notice of the act or resolution, or at the time the same was adopted, if he was present at the meeting and dissented, or by causing a statement of his dissent to be published, within two weeks after he has notice of said act or resolution, in a newspaper of general circulation in the United States Virgin Islands.