RICO carries extremely stiff penalties and intrudes on traditional areas of state law. As you can see from what is listed, the possible predicate crimes for RICO charges span a wide range of criminal activity and include white collar crimes. These underlying crimes that can trigger RICO charges are called predicate crimes. The statute lists particular criminal activity. RICO charges cannot be filed against people who engage in any criminal activity.

Any economic activity of any substance normally meets the criteria. Effect on Interstate Commerce – This merely refers to anything that has any effect on commerce when that effect is not entirely limited to one state.There must be some kind of ongoing scheme of criminal activity. Two separate and unrelated crimes are not considered a pattern of racketeering. At least two predicate crimes (explained below) must have been committed.

Pattern of Racketeering – The members of the organization must have engaged in ongoing illegal activity.The enterprise can have either an illegal or a legal purpose. Criminal Enterprise – Any organization that works together over time and has an organizational structure with one or more persons making decisions for the organization.Those elements need to be broken down for an explanation: To successfully prosecute for RICO it must be shown that members of a criminal enterprise engaged in a pattern of racketeering that had an effect on interstate commerce. Attorney’s office a way to successfully prosecute members of an organization for the criminal activity of their associates. For example, the mobster who hijacked a truck could be convicted, but the other members of the Mafia family who profited from the heist usually were not. Previously, prosecutors could get convictions for the lower-ranking members who actually carried out criminal activity, but found it difficult to prosecute the leaders who ordered the activity. The original intent of RICO was to allow for the successful prosecution of high-ranking members of the Mafia. RICO creates criminal and civil penalties for members of organizations that engage in patterns of criminal activity. While that is how the law was first primarily used and intended, it has been applied in cases involving organizations that few people would mistake for the Mafia, including Major League Baseball, the Key West Police Department and the Catholic Church. The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act “RICO” is often thought of as a law designed to combat the Mafia.

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