RICO Activity
Zamboni and Iceman are picked up on a RICO charge violation. Zamboni has 29 previous arrests on a variety of charges and three convictions. Iceman has four prior arrests and 2 convictions. Two of these convictions for each defendant were for Rico type activites. Explain what a Rico activity is. What are the elements? What factors would affect the strength of the prosecutor’s racketeering case?
RICO Activity
RICO stands for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act which is a law designed by the federal government to deal and combat with a thread of organized crime in the United States. The crimes committed may be committed in attempt to intimidate or obtain money or property from a person. The crimes that constituting racketeering including murder, kidnapping, drug dealing, arson, gambling, drug dealing, and bribery. These crimes are called predicate offenses and wire and mail fraud are included in the list.
The basic elements of RICO are broad. There are seven elements of a civil RICO action. The first element states that only persons can sue or be sued. The second element states that the plaintiff must prove that the defendant participated in a pattern of racketeering activity. The third element of RICO is that the pattern of the racketeering activity must be entailed at least two crimes in the racketeering pattern that have been committed in less than ten (10) years following each other with one crime having taken place after the effective date of the statute. Murner et al, 2018). The fourth element focuses on the requirement that there must be the existence of an enterprise that was used as a tool or as the target for the racketeering activity.
The fifth element of the RICO act is that the involved enterprise must have engaged in or influence an interstate commercial activity. As for the sixth element, the plaintiff must categorically allege and prove to the injury of their property or their business in the activities. The last element is that the plaintiff must effectively demonstrate that the injuries were caused by the pattern of racketeering activity.
Some factors can affect the strength of the case facing Zamboni and Iceman. According to the third element of the RICO Act, the prosecutor will have more strength as each of them had committed two crime from the list of racketeering activities (Ciarroni, 2017). The strength of the prosecutor’s case will be affected by the fact that no enterprise is linking the two defendants because no enterprise is mentioned and there must be the existence of an enterprise that was used as a tool for the racketeering activity. The prosecutor would have to prove there is a pattern of racketeering activity that must be linked with the two defendant’s actions.
References
Ciarroni, B. (2017). From the Italian Mafia to Suppressing Societal Challenges: the Evolution of Federal Criminal RICO and the Constitutional Objections against It. J. Marshall L. Rev., 51, 647.
Murner, D., Herr, C., Copperman, C., Sola, J., Trujillo, F., & Abreu, E. (2018). Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. Am. Crim. L. Rev., 55, 1619.
