criminal justice-rico act

RICO ACT - AN ANALYSIS

TABLE OF INDEX

S .NO HEADINGS PAGE NO

1 INTRODUCTION

3

2 AN ANALYSIS OF RICO

3

3 LEADING CASES UNDER RICO ACT

4

4 CONCLUSION 8 1 . INTRODUCTION

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (R .I .C .O ) was promulgated in 1970 . RICO plays a vital role in combating the organized crimes in U .S . It has given teething lessons to the gangland . It is a legislative piece to avert racketeering and extortion by organized crime . Congress approved the RICO Act

thereby expanding the FBI 's authority to prosecute organized crimes

RICO enables organizations to sue for violations of the Hobbs Act , an earlier anti-racketeering law which outlaws the hindering of commerce `by robbery or extortion . If a business infringes the Hobbs Act on more than two incidents , it can be sued under RICO which facilitates for tripling of fines for damages

RICO is a legislative exercise which is designed to offer the Federal Government with `latest arsenal of unprecedented scope for an assault upon organized crime

2 . AN ANALYSIS OF RICO

To crackdown the organized crime gangs , it proves to be an arduous task as it is having some political corruption and organization crime 's link due to involvement of some politicians . As far as United States is concerned , RICO Act plays a vital role in apprehending members of the organized crimes . It also lists several crimes often connected with organized crimes . RICO Act reprimands these crimes with huge sanctions forfeiture of assets and longer jail terms . RICO statute has been designed to offer unusual remedies in the fight against organized crimes such as freezing of all of an accused pending trial , have also been employed by federal prosecutors against legitimate business enterprise

RICO provided federal prosecutors and investigators , for the first time the legal arsenal to pursue patterns of criminal activity , criminal organizations and crime profits . The Rico Act prohibits the use of profits derived from illegal activity in any enterprise and the use of any enterprise to commit a pattern of criminal activity . The word `enterprise `includes any individual , a corporation , a partnership , a union , an association or any legal entity capable of holding property interest . `Pattern of criminal activity ' includes a wide variety of both state and federal violations including fraud , racketeering , narcotics and bribery . RICO offenders can be fined and / or imprisoned for a period of 20 years and are also subject to compulsory asset seizure and forfeiture . The severe criminal punishment permits the government to hit the economic fundamentals of the racketeering activities . Further , RICO Act also allows the government to bring civil action against offenders to obtain equitable relief and recover damages against the racketeer under 1964

3 . LEADING CASES UNDER RICO ACT

The federal district found liable defendants Deborah Pollock et al under the civil provisions of the RICO as they were engaged in egregious fraud and doctored documents as it involved misfeasance of funds allotted to help prevent homelessness . The Court awarded 212 ,394 as damages to...