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Anonymous ID: d013ab Nov. 17, 2023, 7:55 a.m. No.19931604   🗄️.is 🔗kun

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

 

RICO was enacted by Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 91–452, 84 Stat. 922, enacted October 15, 1970), and is codified at 18 U.S.C. ch. 96 as 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968.

 

This article primarily covers the federal criminal statute, but since 1972, 33 U.S. states and territories have adopted state RICO laws, which although similar, cover additional state crimes and may differ from the federal law and each other in several respects.

 

Under RICO, a person who has committed "at least two acts of racketeering activity" drawn from a list of 35 crimes (27 federal crimes and eight state crimes) within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering if such acts are related in one of four specified ways to an "enterprise."[1]

 

Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count.[2]

 

In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity."[3]

 

A US Attorney who indicts someone under RICO has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or an injunction to temporarily seize a defendant's assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property as well as to require the defendant to put up a performance bond. An injunction or performance bond ensures that there is something to seize in the event of a guilty verdict.

 

This provision prevented the owners of Mafia-related shell corporations to abscond with assets. In many cases, the threat of a RICO indictment can force defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges, in part because the seizure of assets would make it difficult to pay a defense attorney.

 

Despite its harsh provisions, a RICO-related charge is considered easy to prove in court because it focuses on patterns of behavior as opposed to criminal acts.[4]

 

Enterprise defined

There must be one of four specified relationships between the defendant(s) and the enterprise. Either the defendant(s):

 

invested the proceeds of the pattern of racketeering activity into the enterprise (18 U.S.C. § 1962(a)); or

acquired or maintained an interest in, or control of, the enterprise through the pattern of racketeering activity (subsection (b)); or

conducted or participated in the affairs of the enterprise "through" the pattern of racketeering activity (subsection (c)); or

conspired to do one of the above (subsection (d)).[5]

The US Supreme Court noted that a commentator had used the terms 'prize', 'instrument', 'victim', or 'perpetrator' for these four relationships.[6]

 

Civil suits

RICO also permits a private individual "damaged in his business or property" by a "racketeer" to file a civil suit. The plaintiff must prove the existence of an "enterprise." The defendant(s) are not the enterprise; in other words, the defendant(s) and the enterprise are not one and the same.[7]

 

A civil RICO action can be filed in state or federal court.[8]

 

Both the criminal and the civil components allow the recovery of treble damages (triple the amount of actual/compensatory damages).[citation needed]