RICO (“Racketeering and Corrupt Organization”) is a statute that allows a prosecutor extremely wide latitude in charging people with criminal actions.
What exactly do you have to do to be a “corrupt” organization? Suppose my Boss wants we to participate in someillegal scheme-can I run to the local US Atty’s office and get a RICO thing going?
Please let me know-I’m dying to try this out?
PS: how big does an organization have to be to be a “racket”?
First, if you tried to go the the federal prosecutors, they’d probably tell you to go the the local or state ones first.
If you did covince them to look into it, they’d be highly suspicious of you if you tried to get them to puch the RICO statutes for three reasons. First, they’d want to know how you knew it was organized, etc and if you couldn’t answer, and you couldn’t unless you got yourself very deeply involved, not just rinning to the feds at the first sign of crime. Second, prosecutors don’t like know nothings telling them how to do their job. Third, prosecutors are highly suspicious of people who are too eager to get someone prosecutedm and if you ran in trying to get RICO used (or even mentioning it) they’d either suspect you of something or suspect that you are a loon.
egkelly,
The first question you must answer is, “What is racketeering?” Fortunately for you, the fine folks on Congressional Hill have handled that problem.
Racketeering activity is:
(A) any act or threat involving murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in a controlled substance or listed chemical, which is chargeable under State law and punishable by imprisonment for more than one year;
(B) bribery, sports bribery, counterfeiting, theft from interstate shipment, embezzlement from pension and welfare funds, extortionate credit transactions, fraud and related activity in connection with identification documents, fraud and related activity in connection with access devices, transmission of gambling information), mail fraud, wire fraud), financial institution fraud, procurement of citizenship or nationalization unlawfully, reproduction of naturalization or citizenship papers, the sale of naturalization or citizenship papers, distribution of obscene matter, obstruction of justice, obstruction of criminal investigations, obstruction of State or local law enforcement, tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant, retaliating against a witness, victim, or an informant, false statement in application and use of passport, forgery or false use of passport, misuse of passport, fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents, peonage and slavery, interference with commerce by robbery or extortion, interstate transportation of wagering paraphernalia, unlawful welfare fund payments, illegal gambling businesses, laundering of monetary instruments, engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, sexual exploitation of children, interstate transportation of stolen motor vehicles), interstate transportation of stolen property, trafficking in counterfeit labels for phonorecords, computer programs or computer program documentation or packaging and copies of motion pictures or other audiovisual works, criminal infringement of a copyright, unauthorized fixation of and trafficking in sound recordings and music videos of live musical performances), trafficking in goods or services bearing counterfeit marks, trafficking in certain motor vehicles or motor vehicle parts, trafficking in contraband cigarettes, white slave traffic;
© Illegal loans or payments to labor organizations, embezzlement from union funds;
(D) Fraud in the sale of securities, or the felonious manufacture, importation, receiving, concealment, buying, selling, or otherwise dealing in a controlled substance or listed chemical;
(E) any act which is indictable under the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act; or
(F) any act which is indictable under the Immigration and Nationality Act: bringing in and harboring certain aliens, aiding or assisting certain aliens to enter the United States), the importation of aliens for immoral purposes.
The Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. § 1962 et seq, provides generally that no person may use funds gained from racketeering to: engage in foreign or interstate commerce; participate financially in any enterprise which does engage in foreign or interstate commerce; or conspire with any other person to use such funds in such manner.
So, egkelly, you must answer two questions: is the “illegal thing” proposed by your boss included on that long list of things that constitute racketeering? And is your organization engaged in either foreign or interstate commerce? If so, I guess you can drop by the U.S. Attorney’s office and see if they’re interested…
- Rick
white slave traffic? read the end of section B. no other slave traffic is mentioneed. wtf???
jb_farley,
I imagine the perception is that “white slave traffic” is an area of crime in which racketeering and organized crime might reasonably dabble. Other kinds of slavery, while certainly illegal, are not so associated with the rackets that they deserve mention in this context.
- Rick
I believe it’s also necessary to show that an organization has been charged with repeated instances of the same crime to invoke the RICO law. Of course this can be manipulated. I once read of a police department that sent three different undercover officers into a comic book store during the course of a single day and each bought an adult comic book. After the third purchase, uniformed cops raided the store and charged the owner with repeated counts of selling obscene material and shut his store down.
Bricker hit this one on the nose, so I’d just like to emphasize a few points.
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Wire and mail fraud are covered under RICO. Both of these statutes are extremely broad (if you use the mails or telephone, etc. to advance a fraud in any way, even if the letter/conversation isn’t itself fraudulent, you’ve got mail fraud), so correspondingly, RICO is very broad. Wire and mail fraud, BTW, are usually the bases of civil RICO actions.
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The pattern is important. It can be an open-ended pattern (ongoing) or closed-end (completed). The three sales of porn in one day I would think be beaten by a decent defense attorney (though the guy would still be up under obscenity statutes).
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You need an “enterprise”. As regards the OP, federal courts are split on whether one business, by itself, constitutes an “enterprise” under RICO. So, egkelly, it depends on where you live.
Sua
Thanks for the info. Can FIRESTONE and/or FORD be charged under RICO? They have both engaged in interstate commerce of defective goods, causing loss of life, and may have misrepresented the safety of their respective products.
Let’s get RICO on them!