The RICO Act has been an important component in addressing organized and white collar crime. Write a five page (double-spaced) essay that summarizes the RICO Act and its impact on organized and white collar crime. Be sure to support your thoughts with information from our readings.
Rico Act Essay
The term “Rico Act” stands for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, Codified as chapter 96, Title 18, of the United States Code which was passed by Congress in 1970. The purpose of the Act was to eliminate the ill-affects of organized crime on the nation’s economy. The Rico Act provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The
…show more content…
Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity." RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil lawsuit and collect monetary damages. Despite its harsh provisions, a RICO-related charge is considered easy to prove in court, as it focuses on patterns of behavior as opposed to criminal acts.
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
5. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was originally designed to combat corporate crime? (Hint: No, organized crime…)
Murders, gambling, narcotics, prostitution, hijacking, loansharking, transportation of large whitefish across the state line for immoral purposes
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?
In this paper it was asked of us as a team to give an in-depth historical analysis of an organized crime group. With this class being about organized crime one would think to write about mobsters, but we decided to think outside the box. Even though when thinking of organized crime the first thought is The Italian Mafia and groups of that sort, one has to remember that organized crime comes in many different forms of organizations. From this class we were able to understand more on organized crime and who can be classified as an organized crime organization. Organizations that one would never really think of as having ties to organized crime may have some
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
RICO, which stands for Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, was created in 1970 by the United States Government as a way to help courts fight organized crime. These types of organized crime are often called white collar crimes and they can range from fraud and embezzlement to bribery. Before RICO was established it was far too easy for a person higher up the ladder or ranks of a company or gang to dodge any sort of prosecution for their actions simply because they were not the person who actually did whatever deeds that were being prosecuted. Instead, said person would hold to the liability of others for acting out on their orders, making such persons the only viable criminal, because they were the ones who actively
We may not see this group but the mafia was big back in the day. The mafia was the leading group in criminal activity in the 1960’s(Darity). The mafia was a group that would make tons and tons of money off of drugs, robberies and murders. They would sometimes pay off cops to look the other way and if they didn’t get what they wanted they would use their firearms. With stronger and more enforced laws, many lives could have been saved.
Victims can be an individual, a group of individuals, (such as customers of a bank), or an organization and any of them may experience astronomical financial losses (Hayes & Prenzler, 2009). Some of the most notorious examples of the harmful effect of white-collar crime is the collapse of the US company Enron, with losses of over USD$50 billion (Friedrichs, 2004) and in Australia, the collapse of insurer HIH Insurance with losses of over A$4 billion (HIH Royal Commission, 2003. cited in Hayes & Prenzler, 2009). Research indicates that crimes of this magnitude play a vital role in causing or contributing
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.
Since the 1990’s, organized crime has become a problem among U.S. citizens. The Mafia was the earliest group to show its strengths of power and manipulation among citizens and business of New York City. From the time of the Mafia’s rise, other criminal organizations have surfaced using their power to corrupt personal within business for the gain of finance and political strength. In today society, one of the main question when it comes to these groups is how can criminal organizations be controlled? This paper will identify the problems presented and the various relationships established by organized crime. It will describe the legal limitations associated with combating
The Mexican Mafia, or “La Eme”, as they refer to themselves, is one of the most powerful and influential organized crime gangs in the United States. The organization has risen through the decades of mass gang wars and violence to become the power it is today. Their control is limitless and they have ventured far beyond the expectations of what was thought that gangs were capable of. They have infiltrated governments and manipulated politics. They have taken over neighborhoods and attempted to ethnically cleanse them. Innocent people have become caught up in the affairs of La Eme throughout its history and many have faced violence and death at their hands. This paper is a continual of the case analysis of the Mexican Mafia and will attempt to provide explanations for some of the crimes committed by this organization. Researching gangs and organized crime is important because of their large influence and control over many aspects of daily life. The significance of attempting to provide causations of their crimes can better provide the criminal justice system a clearer understanding of problems that lead to gang members committing crimes on behalf of the organization. A clearer understanding of problems can help the system to provide solutions to combat situations that inhibit crimes.
Although the Mafia is most associated with the Prohibition era of the 1920’s when it dominated crime in all major US cities, the true beginnings of the most infamous criminal organization started quite earlier. Beginning in the late 1800s, many Italians immigrated to New York City due to continued rumors of success in the area. This trend continued out of the 19th century and into the 20th as over 500,000 Italians immigrated to the United States (Sifakis). As Italian citizens migrated to the cities of the US, they brought along organized Italian criminals, who formed an organization known as Costra Nosa, translating to ‘our thing’, today we call it the Mafia.
The economic impact of organized crime is staggering. “… a look at the economic impact alone gives a glimpse of the importance of this issue. The
The judicial system supports the behaviors of making an individual a repeat offender. The prosecution process is flawed when punishing criminals for their crimes. White-collar crimes may not appear to be taken as seriously as other crimes, (i.e., murder, rape, armed robbery, etc.) so the jail sentencing will not be as impactful. This action sends the message to criminals that with softer criminal tactics, they will not do hard time. According to the text, “Jail time does not offer amicable solution, because in most times the intended offense is not prosecuted” (Lilly, Cullen & Ball, 2011).
One of the largest Organized crime bust occurred in 2011. Close to 130 members of the New York City Mafia were arrested along with other East Coast cities. The Bonnanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese were all part of the New York’s five families. Members of each of the five families were arrested to include some of the