Federal RICO Statutes Essay

Secondly, these individuals or organizations truly believe they will accomplish their illicit act(s) and not get caught. Finally, all too often, individuals or people belong to organizations committing white-collar crimes try and keep up with their lifestyle, don’t want to be viewed as a failure, or have a propensity toward low self-control or complete control. Sadly, often they usually only have to pay a fine and the people involved are rarely prosecuted. And if they are arrested, they don’t receive lengthly sentences. In addition, people engaged in white-collar crime fly under the radar often-negotiating plea deals; therefore, the public’s interests in these crimes are short lived. If white-collar crimes made there way to the mainstream media as much as violent crimes, and the news media followed-up on the damage these crimes caused to their victims, legislators might be compelled by their constituents to amend the sentencing guidelines making the consequences for these criminals a lot more

5. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was originally designed to combat corporate crime? (Hint: No, organized crime…)

In 1798 the United States was involved in an undeclared war with France. “The United States again stood on the brink of war with a major European power, only this time instead of Great Britain the hostile nation was France.”(Hay 141) Later on the Federalist Party passed a series of four laws which were called the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Federalists saw foreigners as a deep threat to American security. There were a series of four acts that were adopted to alienate aliens. The first of these acts was the Naturalization Act which was passed by Congress on June 18. This act required that aliens be residents for 14 years instead of 5 years

Although some of the RICO predicate acts are extortion and blackmail, one of the most successful applications of the RICO laws has been the ability to indict or sanction individuals for their behavior and actions committed against witnesses and victims in alleged retaliation or retribution for cooperating with federal law enforcement or intelligence agencies. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of bringing organized crime members to justice, ten years passed before the first RICO convictions were obtained. Throughout the 1970s crime families continually fought for power over the many racketeering enterprises that brought in huge sums of money. The National Conference on Organized Crime in 1975 estimated that mob

In the case of Robinson v. California, 370 U.S. 660 (1962), the Supreme Court ruled that a law may not punish a status; i.e., one may not be punished to being an alcoholic or for being addicted to drugs. However, of course, one may be punished for actions such as abusing drugs. The question becomes; What if the status “forces” the action? What if a person, because of his/her addiction to drugs, is “forced” by the addiction to purchase and abuse the illegal drugs? Would punishing that person be unfairly punishing a status?

The RICO act was signed in to law enforcement in 1970 by the acting commander in chief Richard Nixon. RICO was enacted as title XI of the organized crime act and started off in full swing with the Mafia growing more powerful than the public really knew. RICO was a total game changer, not just for the gangster, but the people they so often did their dirty work with. RICO has a multitude of ways someone can by charged with a crime of racketeering. Racketeering its self, is really an umbrella of more than about 50 plus different crimes. Under RICO any person that has committed two or more racketeering offense in the last decade can be charged using the RICO act to help. Originally enacted to bring down the Cosa Nostra from running their criminal enterprise, but in order to do so “the head of the snake had to be cut off” as said by Rudy Giuliani. The bosses of the mob never got their own hands dirty they were always the ones giving orders in privet meetings with their worker men, so tying the bosses to the crimes being committed on the street was near, if not completely imposable. The best way to the damning information and evidence is; wire taps, recordings and records of all kinds. Before you can just intrude in to someones personal life like that you need a court order, because as Americans we have rights and the 4th amendment protects us from such invasion criminal or not. Before a judge will sign off on a title XI you must have hard evidential prof that someone has

The Mafia is involved with more crime then one can think. Back when there was prohibition who do you think was the booze smuggler, the Mafia. this is just a few crimes the Mafia commits. Mafia hitman Salvatore ``Sammy the Bull'' Gravano pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that he helped operate and finance a multimillion dollar, statewide criminal drug deal in Arizona. A federal grand jury in Brooklyn indicted 19 individuals, including six with suspected ties to organized crime, on charges of stock fraud and money laundering. Sex probably rates higher than whiskey in desirability, and so organized crime moved into illegal prostitution. these are just a spoonful or what the Mafia does. Racketeering; fraud; car theft; robbery; armed assault; drug dealing; trafficking in weapons and radioactive material; trafficking in human beings and exploitation through prostitution; alien smuggling; smuggling of precious and antique goods; extortion for protection money; gambling; embezzling from industries and financial institutions up to infiltration and control of private and commercial banks; controlling of black markets. The Mafia is dangerous group of people and they should be put in jail.

Consequently, the federal government enacted the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 which granted money to state law enforcement and allowed wiretapping in cases of suspected criminals; it was a first and direct attack to organized crime as a whole but not criminal organizations (Finklea). Realizing this, the federal government passed The Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 which gave more power to the government in order to combat and prosecute criminal organizations (Finklea). As mentioned in the same article, it allowed Special Grand Juries to investigate multi-jurisdictional organized crimes and for witnesses to be granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimonies and protection of themselves and their families

In the case of United States v. Salerno, records indicate that the defendant, Anthony ‘Fat Tony’ Salerno and Vincent Cafaro were indicted on 29 counts of racketeering in addition to gambling violations, mail and wire fraud, extortion, gambling, and conspiracy to commit murder, all considered violations of the RICO Act (Racketeering, Influence, and Corrupt Organizations). Upon determination that Salerno was “the boss of the Genovese crime family of La Cosa Nostra crime family and Cafaro was a "captain" in the Genovese family” (United States v. Salerno, n.d.) and providing evidence of illegal activities via court-ordered wiretaps, the government established that no condition or combination of conditions would ensure the safety of any person

Most people, when they hear the word “crime,” think about street crime or violent crime such as murder, rape, theft, or drugs. However, there is another type of crime that has cost people their life savings, investors’ billions of dollars, and has had significant impacts of multiple lives; it is called white collar crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation defines white collar crime as

The proposal for creating Puerto Rico’s court system is no easy task. Systems from Wisconsin, Florida, Iowa, and New Jersey will be used in revamping Puerto Rico’s three-tier system to maximize efficiency and save costs. Following a brief history, the proposal will outline the states court structure, its employees, and the ethical standard those employees must abide by.

From the standpoint of the criminal, the ideal white- collar crime is one that will never be recognized or detected as a criminal act. (Radzinowicz 325-335) Corporate Crime Corporate crime is the type of crime that is engaged in by individuals and groups of individuals who become involved in criminal conspiracies designed to improve the market share or profitability of their corporations. ( Siegel 338) Corporations are legal entities, which can be and are subjected to criminal processes. There is today little restriction on the range of crimes for which corporations may be held responsible, though a corporation cannot be imprisoned. The most controversial issue in regard to the study of corporate crime revolves around the question of whether corporate crime is "really crime." Corporate officials, politicians, and many criminologists object to the criminological study of corporate criminality on the strictest sense of the word. The conventional and strictly legal definition of crime is that it is an act, which violates the criminal law and is thereby punishable by a criminal court. From this perspective a criminal is one who has been convicted in a criminal court. Given these widely accepted notions of crime and criminals, it is argued that what is called corporate crime is not really

In this paper the exciting criminal phenomenon known as white-collar crime will be discussed. Corporate Crime and Computer Crime will be discussed in detail. Crime preventative agencies such as the NCPC (National Crime Prevention Council) will also be researched. White Collar Crime The late Professor Edwin Sutherland coined the term white-collar crime about 1941. Sutherland defined white-collar crime as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" (Siegel 337) White-collar crime includes, by way of example, such acts as promulgating false or misleading advertising, illegal exploitation of employees, mislabeling of goods, violation of weights and measures statutes, conspiring to

The due process and crime control models, both created by Stanford University law professor Herbert Packer, represents two opposing method of principles functioning within criminal justice system. Although the models describe the important facets of the politics and practice of criminal justice, both have been criticized since presented by Packer in 1964. Presently both models are acknowledged as imperfect standards to explain the politics and law of criminal justice. The crime control ideal represents traditional principles, whereas the due process belief reflects moderate values; therefore generating conflict evident throughout the years. This paper discusses models, crime control and due process, and how each affects the criminal

In the twentieth century, White Collar and Organized Crimes have attracted the attention of the U.S. Criminal Justice System due to the greater cost to society than most normal street crime. Even with the new attention by the Criminal Justice System, both are still pretty unknown to the general public. Although we know it occurs, due to the lack of coverage and information, society does not realize the extent of these crimes or the impact. White Collar and Organized is generally crime committed by someone that is considered respectable and has a high social status. The crimes committed usually consist of fraud, insider trading, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, identity theft or forgery. One