The news in recent days has been filled with references to RICO, which stands for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It is federal law (18 U.S.C. §§ 1961 to 1968) enacted in 1970 to combat organized crime. It contains both criminal and civil remedies.
The law focuses on what is called “racketeering activity,” defined in the statute as any act (or threat) involving a host of crimes, including murder, gambling, robbery, arson, felony drug crimes, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion, gun trafficking, mail fraud, and wire fraud, among others. The offenses covered under RICO are referred to as “predicate offenses.” To be charged criminally under RICO, there must be at least 2 predicate offenses within a 10-year period. The government must also prove that the defendant participated, maintained an interest, or invested in a criminal enterprise that affected interstate or foreign commerce. More than half the states, including Arizona, have adopted their own RICO statutes.
The following are examples of federal RICO prosecutions over the years:
- Hell’s Angels. The RICO statute was not used until almost a decade after it became law. In 1979, however, a RICO prosecution was aimed at the Hell’s Angels relating to an alleged methamphetamine operation. The trial resulted in a hung jury, and charges against most of the defendants were later dismissed by the government.
- Traditional Organized Crime. In 1980, a successful prosecution was pursued against the head of the Genovese crime family, followed over the years with prosecutions aimed at more than a dozen of the nation’s mob families.
- Reproductive Healthcare. In 2019, a group that waged a campaign against Planned Parenthood was charged and convicted of violating RICO while attempting to thwart access to reproductive healthcare.
The recent news relating to RICO focuses, in large part, on alleged politically related offenses, specifically, crimes such as election interference, money laundering, and related crimes.
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