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Alec Gores
Alec Gores is an American businessman http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/10/billionaires-2010_Alec-Gores_DJR1.html who made his fortune through leveraged buyouts of technology firms. His personal wealth was estimated at roughly $1.5 billion by Forbes magazine in 2008. Gores is an Israeli immigrant who was raised in Flint, Michigan. He is an alumnus of Western Michigan University.
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Alien (law)
In law, an alien is a person in a country who is not a citizen of that country.
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Anthony Pellicano
:"Pellicano" redirects here. For the detective-fiction writer, see George Pelecanos.
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Bert Fields
Bertram Fields (March 31, 1929) is an American lawyer famous for his work in the field of entertainment law; he has represented many of the leading studios, as well as individual celebrities including The Beatles, Warren Beatty, James Cameron, Mike Nichols, Joel Silver, Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, and John Travolta.
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Billy Bulger
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Brad Grey
Brad Alan Grey (born December 29, 1957) is an American film, television producer, and is currently the CEO of Paramount Pictures, a position he has held since 2005. Under Grey’s leadership, in 2008, Paramount posted the second largest box office numbers with $1.5 billion in domestic tickets sales. The following year the studio produced and released such hits as , Star Trek, and Up in the Air, and acquired and released Paranormal Activity, which was made for $15,000 and generated $192 million at the box office.
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Bud Selig
Allan Huber "Bud" Selig
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Donnie Brasco
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Freddy DeMann
Frederick "Freddy" DeMann is a film producer, music executive, and co-founder of Maverick Records. He is also the former manager of American pop superstar Madonna, who was his client from 1983 until 1997. He also helped Canadian singer France Joli and Michael Jackson to international superstardom. He co-founded Maverick Records with Madonna and Time Warner. With HBO, he produced The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, winning the BFCA (Critics’ Choice Award) and the Golden Globe Award. Broadway productions include Proof, Topdog/Underdog, Take Me Out, and Spring Awakening; each play won the Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize, or both. Also: Caroline, or Change and Jumpers.
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G. Robert Blakey
George Robert Blakey (born January 7, 1936, in Burlington, North Carolina) is an American attorney and law professor. He is best known for his work in connection with drafting the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and for scholarship on that subject.
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Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. It was established as the International Criminal Police Commission in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its common name in 1956.
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Irish American
Irish Americans () are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. An estimated total of 36,278,332 Americans—11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey. The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans are German Americans. In addition another 3.5 million Americans identify more specifically with Scots-Irish ancestry. The Irish are widely dispersed in terms of geography, and occupations. Irish American political leaders have played a major role in local and national politics since before the American Revolutionary War; eight Irish Americans signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and 22 American Presidents, from Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama, have been at least partly of Irish ancestry. (See "American Presidents with origins in Ireland" below.)
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James Marcello
James J. “Little Jimmy, Jimmy Light” Marcello (born December 13, 1943), also known as Jimmy "the Man" Marcello, is an imprisoned crime boss who was a front boss for the Chicago Outfit criminal organization in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Organized crime observers identified Marcello as a figurehead during that period while the organization's day-to-day operations actually were run by John “No Nose” DiFronzo, Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo and Joseph “Joe the Builder” Andriacchi. Marcello is the half-brother of Michael Marcello, and a cousin of Chicago Outfit mobster Robert Urbinatti. He is also the brother-in-law to mobster Salvatore Galioto and uncle to mobster John Galioto, and the father of Rocco Marcello.
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Jeffrey Loria
Jeffrey H. Loria (born November 20, 1940) is an art dealer and is owner of the Florida Marlins. Raised in Manhattan, Loria took an early interest in baseball, attending his first New York Yankees game in the late 1940s. Loria attended New York City's Stuyvesant High School, and Yale University, where he initially took pre-med courses. With a requirement to take a history class, Loria chose art history.
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John Connolly (FBI)
John J. "Zip" Connolly, Jr. is a former FBI agent, currently incarcerated in a federal penitentiary for racketeering and obstruction of justice convictions stemming from his relationship with James J. "Whitey" Bulger, Steve Flemmi, and the Winter Hill Gang. He is the brother-in-law of Arthur Gianelli who is married to Mary Ann Moore, the sister of Connolly's wife Elizabeth.
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Latin Kings (gang)
The Latin Kings are said to be the largest and most organized Hispanic street gang in the United States of America,[http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20100722_Latin_Kings_gang_members_charged_in_murder__racketeering__drug_offenses.html], which has its roots dating back to the 1940s in Chicago, Illinois. The Latin Kings first emerged in Chicago in the 1940s after several young Puerto Rican males on the north side—and later, Mexican males on the south side—organized into a self-defense group to protect their communities. The initial intention was to unite "all Latinos" into a collective struggle against "oppression" and to help each other overcome the problems of racism and prejudice that newly arriving Latino immigrants were experiencing. Hence, the name "Latin Kings and Queens", which as it denotes, is a reference to members of all Latino heritages. They organized themselves as a vanguard for their communities.
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Michael Conahan
Michael Conahan is a former judge from Luzerne County Pennsylvania
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Michael Goldsmith
Michael Goldsmith was a law professor at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School.
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Michael Milken
Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier and philanthropist noted for his role in the development of the market for high-yield bonds (also called junk bonds) during the 1970s and 1980s, for his 1990 guilty plea to multiple felony charges that he violated US securities laws and for his funding of medical research.
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Michael Ovitz
Michael S. Ovitz (born December 14, 1946) is an American talent agent who co-founded Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995; Mr. Ovitz also served as President of the Walt Disney Company, from October 1995 to January 1997.
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Misha Glenny
Misha Glenny (born 1958) is a British journalist who specializes in southeastern Europe and global organized crime.
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Ronald Meyer
Ron Meyer is an American entertainment executive and former talent agent.
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Ronnie Trucchio
Ronald Joseph Trucchio (born 1951 Ocean Hill, Brooklyn) also known as "One Armed Ronnie", is a New York mobster with the Gambino crime family who ran the The Ozone Park Boys crew during the 1990's.
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Scott W. Rothstein
Scott W. Rothstein (born June 10, 1962) is a disbarred lawyer and the former managing shareholder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. He was accused of funding his philanthropy, political contributions, law firm salaries, and an extravagant lifestyle with a massive 1.2 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. On December 1, 2009, Rothstein turned himself in to authorities and was subsequently arrested on charges related to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
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Semion Mogilevich
Semion Yudkovich Mogilevich (, ; born June 30, 1946 in Kiev, Ukraine) is an organized crime boss believed by European and United States federal law enforcement agencies to be the "boss of bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world.
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Sonny Barger
Ralph Hubert "Sonny" Barger (born in Modesto, California) is a founding member (1957) of the Oakland, California, U.S. chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club.
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Stephen Flemmi
Stephen Joseph "The Rifleman" Flemmi (born June 9, 1935) is an Italian-American mobster and close associate of Winter Hill Gang boss James J. Bulger. Beginning in 1965, Flemmi was a top echelon informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Despite delivering a great deal of intelligence about the inner workings of the Patriarca crime family, Flemmi's own criminal activities proved a public relations nightmare for the FBI. For this reason, he was prosecuted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and sentenced to a long term in federal prison.
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Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. It was established as the International Criminal Police Commission in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its common name in 1956.
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Los Angeles ( ; , Spanish for "The Angels") is the second most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of California and the western United States, with a population of 3.83 million within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Los Angeles extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of over 14.8 million and it is the 14th largest urban area in the world, affording it megacity status. The metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is home to nearly 12.9 million residents while the broader Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside combined statistical area (CSA) contains nearly 17.8 million people. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most multicultural counties in the United States. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos" ().
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New York (; locally or ) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the north and west, and Quebec to the north. New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
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Tampa () is a Gulf Coast Bay city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2000 was 303,447. According to the 2009 estimates, the city's population had grown to 343,890, making it the 54th largest city in the United States.
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Vatican City or Vatican City State, officially Stato della Città del Vaticano (), which translates literally as "State of the City of the Vatican", is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the capital city of Italy. It has an area of approximately , and a population of just over 800.
http://wn.com/Vatican_City
- Alec Gores
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Iran files complaint over purported US drone
Al Jazeera
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Euro crisis summit: The night Europe changed
BBC News
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Before Voting, If Only Death Had Been Before Their Own Eyes
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Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza civilians
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Italian police arrest alleged Mafia boss hiding in bunker
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- devalue
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- federal law
- federal prison
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- Freddy DeMann
- G. Robert Blakey
- Gambino crime family
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- Interpol
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RICO was enacted by section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (). RICO is codified as Chapter 96 of Title 18 of the United States Code, 18 U.S.C. § 1961–1968. While its original use was to prosecute the Mafia as well as others who were actively engaged in organized crime, its application has been more widespread.
It has been speculated that the name and acronym were selected in a sly reference to the movie Little Caesar, which featured a notorious gangster named Rico. The original drafter of the bill, G. Robert Blakey, refused to confirm or deny this. G. Robert Blakey remains an expert on RICO; his former student Michael Goldsmith also gained a reputation as one of the nation's leading RICO experts.
Summary
Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. 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 suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.When the U.S. Attorney decides to indict someone under RICO, he or she has the option of seeking a pre-trial restraining order or injunction to temporarily seize a defendant's assets and prevent the transfer of potentially forfeitable property, as well as require the defendant to put up a performance bond. This provision was placed in the law because the owners of Mafia-related shell corporations often absconded with the assets. An injunction and/or performance bond ensures that there is something to seize in the event of a guilty verdict.
In many cases, the threat of a RICO indictment can force defendants to plead guilty to lesser charges, in part because the seizure of assets would make it difficult to pay a defense attorney. 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.
There is also a provision for private parties to sue. A "person damaged in his business or property" can sue one or more "racketeers". The plaintiff must prove the existence of an "enterprise". The defendant(s) are not the enterprise; in other words, the defendant(s) and the enterprise are not one and the same. There must be one of four specified relationships between the defendant(s) and the enterprise: either the defendant(s) invested the proceeds of the pattern of racketeering activity into the enterprise; or the defendant(s) acquired or maintained an interest in, or control over, the enterprise through the pattern of racketeering activity; or the defendant(s) conducted or participated in the affairs of the enterprise "through" the pattern of racketeering activity; or the defendant(s) conspired to do one of the above. In essence, the enterprise is the victim of the racketeers. A civil RICO action, like many lawsuits based on federal law, can be filed in state or federal court.
Both the federal and civil components allow for the recovery of treble damages (damages in triple the amount of actual/compensatory damages).
Although its primary intent was to deal with organized crime, Blakey said that Congress never intended it to merely apply to the Mob. He once told Time, "We don't want one set of rules for people whose collars are blue or whose names end in vowels, and another set for those whose collars are white and have Ivy League diplomas."
RICO offenses
Under the law, racketeering activity means:
Pattern of racketeering activity requires at least two acts of racketeering activity, one of which occurred after the effective date of this chapter and the last of which occurred within ten years (excluding any period of imprisonment) after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity. The U.S. Supreme Court has instructed federal courts to follow the continuity-plus-relationship test in order to determine whether the facts of a specific case give rise to an established pattern. Predicate acts are related if they "have the same or similar purposes, results, participants, victims, or methods of commission, or otherwise are interrelated by distinguishing characteristics and are not isolated events." (H.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co.) Continuity is both a closed and open ended concept, referring to either a closed period of conduct, or to past conduct that by its nature projects into the future with a threat of repetition.
Where RICO laws might be applied
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.Violations of the RICO laws can be alleged in civil lawsuit cases or for criminal charges. In these instances charges can be brought against individuals or corporations in retaliation for said individuals or corporations working with law enforcement. Further, charges can also be brought against individuals or corporations who have sued or filed criminal charges against a defendant.
Anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) laws can be applied in an attempt to curb alleged abuses of the legal system by individuals or corporations who utilize the courts as a weapon to retaliate against whistle blowers, victims, or to silence another's speech. RICO could be alleged if it can be shown that lawyers and/or their clients conspired and collaborated to concoct fictitious legal complaints solely in retribution and retaliation for themselves having been brought before the courts.
Although the RICO laws may cover drug trafficking crimes in addition to other more traditional RICO predicate acts such as extortion, blackmail, and racketeering, large-scale and organized drug networks are now commonly prosecuted under the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute, also known as the "Kingpin Statute". The CCE laws target only traffickers who are responsible for long-term and elaborate conspiracies; whereas the RICO law can be charged for a variety of organized criminal behavior.
Famous cases
Hells Angels Motorcycle Club
In 1979, the United States federal government went after Sonny Barger and several members and associates of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels using RICO. In United States v. Barger, the prosecution team attempted to demonstrate a pattern of behavior to convict Barger and other members of the club of RICO offenses related to guns and illegal drugs. The jury acquitted Barger on the RICO charges with a hung jury on the predicate acts: "There was no proof it was part of club policy, and as much as they tried, the government could not come up with any incriminating minutes from any of our meetings mentioning drugs and guns."
Frank Tieri
On November 21, 1980, Genovese crime family boss Frank "Funzi" Tieri was the first Mafia boss to be convicted under the RICO Act.
Catholic sex abuse cases
In some jurisdictions, RICO suits have been filed against Catholic dioceses, using racketeering laws to prosecute the highers-up in the episcopacy for abuses committed by those under their authority. A Cleveland grand jury cleared two bishops of racketeering charges, finding that their mishandling of sex abuse claims did not amount to criminal racketeering. Certain lawyers and abuse advocates have openly wondered why a similar suit was not filed against archbishop Bernard Law, who escaped prosecution by going into exile in Vatican City.
Key West PD
In June 1984, the Key West Police Department in Monroe County, Florida, was declared a criminal enterprise under the federal RICO statutes after a lengthy United States Department of Justice investigation. Several high-ranking officers of the department, including Deputy Police Chief Raymond Cassamayor, were arrested on federal charges of running a protection racket for illegal cocaine smugglers. At trial, a witness testified he routinely delivered bags of cocaine to the Deputy Chief's office at City Hall.
Michael Milken
On March 29, 1989, financier Michael Milken was indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and fraud relating to an investigation into insider trading and other offenses. Milken was accused of using a wide-ranging network of contacts to manipulate stock and bond prices. It was one of the first occasions that a RICO indictment was brought against an individual with no ties to organized crime. Milken pled guilty to six lesser offenses rather than face spending the rest of his life in prison.On September 7, 1988, Milken's employer, Drexel Burnham Lambert, was also threatened with a RICO indictment under the legal doctrine that corporations are responsible for their employees' crimes. Drexel avoided RICO charges by pleading no contest to lesser felonies. While many sources say that Drexel pleaded guilty, in truth the firm only admitted it was "not in a position to dispute the allegations." If Drexel had been indicted, it would have had to post a performance bond of up to $1 billion to avoid having its assets frozen. This would have taken precedence over all of the firm's other obligations—including the loans that provided 96 percent of its capital. If the bond ever had to be paid, its shareholders would have been practically wiped out. Since banks will not extend credit to a firm indicted under RICO, an indictment would have likely put Drexel out of business.
Major League Baseball
In 2002, the former minority owners of the Montreal Expos baseball team filed charges under the RICO Act against Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and former Expos owner Jeffrey Loria, claiming that Selig and Loria deliberately conspired to devalue the team for personal benefit in preparation for a move. If found liable, Major League Baseball could have been responsible for up to $300 million in punitive damages. The case lasted for two years, successfully stalling the Expos' move to Washington or contraction during that time. It was eventually sent to arbitration where the arbiters ruled in favor of Major League Baseball, permitting the move to Washington to take place.
Pro-life activists
RICO laws were successfully cited in NOW v. Scheidler, 510 U.S. 249, 114 S. Ct. 798, 127 L.Ed. 2d 99 (1994), a suit in which certain parties, including the National Organization for Women, sought damages and an injunction against pro-life activists who physically block access to abortion clinics. The Court held that a RICO enterprise does not need an economic motive, and that the Pro-Life Action Network could therefore qualify as a RICO enterprise. The Court remanded for consideration of whether PLAN committed the requisite acts in a pattern of racketeering activity.
Winter Hill Gang
James J. Bulger known as "Whitey" Bulger — is the alleged leader of the Winter Hill Gang, an Irish-American crime family based in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the older brother of William Michael Bulger, a former President of the Massachusetts State Senate and the University of Massachusetts. On August 19, 1999, Bulger became the 458th person added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. He is under arrest and awaiting trial for racketeering under RICO, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and narcotics distribution. In October 2007, Interpol released a "red notice" for Bulger. John Connolly is a former FBI agent, currently incarcerated in a federal penitentiary for racketeering and obstruction of justice convictions stemming from his relationship with James J. "Whitey" Bulger, Steve Flemmi, and the Winter Hill Gang. He is the brother-in-law of Arthur Gianelli who is married to Mary Ann Moore, the sister of Connolly's wife Elizabeth. State police and other federal officers had been trying to imprison Whitey Bulger for years, but somehow Bulger always avoided getting caught. As the FBI handler for Bulger and Flemmi, Connolly (who had grown up in the Old Harbor Housing Project with Bulger) had been protecting them from prosecution by feeding him information about possible attempts to catch them. Connolly was indicted on December 22, 1999 on charges of alerting Bulger and Flemmi to investigations, falsifying FBI reports to cover their crimes, and accepting bribes. In 2000, he was charged with additional racketeering related offenses. He was convicted on the racketeering charges in 2002 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. On November 6, 2008, a jury convicted Connolly of second-degree murder. According to the prosecutors, Connolly faced a possible sentence of 30 years to life in prison. Connolly was due to be sentenced on December 4, 2008 but sentencing was postponed until January while the judge in the case, Circuit Judge Stanford Blake, considered a motion by the defense to dismiss the case. The defense argued that in Florida, the statute of limitations had expired for second-degree murder when Connolly was convicted. On January 15, 2009, Blake sentenced Connolly to 40 years in prison, saying that Connolly "crossed over to the dark side." The judge agreed with the defense's argument involving the statute of limitations, but noted that their motion was past the deadline for such motions. He accepted prosecutors' argument that Connolly abused his badge and deserved more than the 30-year minimum. The sentence will run consecutively with his 10-year sentence for racketeering, meaning that Connolly will spend the rest of his life in prison. On June 22, 2011, James Whitey Bulger was arrested at the apartment he had lived in for fifteen years in Santa Monica, California, along with his girlfriend Catherine Greig. He was 81 years old at the time of his arrest, and supposedly in poor health.
Mohawk Industries
On April 26, 2006, the Supreme Court heard Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Williams, which concerned what sort of corporations fell under the scope of RICO. Mohawk Industries had allegedly hired illegal aliens, in violation of RICO. The court was asked to decide whether Mohawk Industries, along with recruiting agencies, constitutes an 'enterprise' that can be prosecuted under RICO, but in June of that year dismissed the case and remanded it to Court of Appeals.
Latin Kings
On August 20, 2006, in Tampa, Florida, most of the state leadership members of the street gang, the Latin Kings, were arrested in connection with RICO conspiracy charges to engage in racketeering and currently await trial. The operation, called "Down Crown", targeted statewide leadership of the Latin Kings. The raid occurred at the Caribbean American Club. Along with Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Tampa Police Department, the State Attorney’s Office, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were involved in the operation. Included in the arrest were leader Gilberto Santana from Brooklyn NY, Captain Luis Hernandez from Miami FL, Affiliate Celina Hernandez, Affiliate Michael Rocca, Affiliate Jessica Ramirez, Affiliate Reinaldo Arroyo, Affiliate Samual Alvarado, Omari Tolbert, Edwin DeLeon, and many others, totaling 39.
Gambino crime family
Also, in Tampa, on October 16, 2006, four members of the Gambino crime family (Capo Ronald Trucchio, Terry Scaglione, Steven Catallono and associate Kevin McMahon) were tried under RICO statutes, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Chicago Outfit
In 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice's Operation Family Secrets indicted 15 Outfit members and associates under RICO predicates. As of 2009 Joseph Lombardo and James Marcello have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Anthony Pellicano
Anthony Pellicano (born March 22, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois) is a former high-profile Los Angeles private investigator who recently served a sentence of three and a half years in federal prison for illegal possession of explosives, firearms and homemade grenades, and who was arrested on February 4, 2006, on unlawful wiretapping and racketeering charges. On February 6, 2006, Pellicano was indicted on 110 counts in United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles alleging crimes of racketeering and conspiracy, wiretapping, witness tampering, identity theft and destruction of evidence. On May 15, 2008, after acting as his own lawyer and suffering a nine day jury deliberation, Pellicano was found guilty on 76 of 77 counts related to racketeering, along with four co-defendants. However, a parade of wealthy witnesses admittedly listened to wiretaps at one time or another. They included Alec Gores, a corporate buyout specialist; Freddy DeMann, a music executive who was once Madonna’s manager; and Adam D. Sender, a hedge fund manager and onetime movie investor. Although some may have known about and paid for Pellicano's services, none received criminal charges. Summing up, the prosecuting attorney stated that he chose to attack the supply rather than the demand, the way that vice investigators attack pimps and prostitutes rather than johns, because “that’s how you make a dent in it.” The johns in this case were the likes of Bert Fields, Brad Grey, Ron Meyer, Michael Ovitz and Chris Rock, all of whom paid Pellicano for services rendered. “If the government has no plans to go higher than Pellicano, this is a depressingly pedestrian effort that shows a lack of ambition,” commented John C. Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School and an expert on white-collar crime, as quoted in the NY Times story on the verdict.
Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella
A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Pennsylvania handed down a 48-count indictment against former Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella. The judges were charged with RICO after allegedly committing acts of Wire fraud, Mail Fraud, Tax Evasion, Money Laundering, and honest services fraud. The judges were accused of taking kickbacks for housing juveniles, that the judges convicted for mostly petty crimes, at a private detention center. The incident was dubbed by many local and national newspapers as the "Kids for cash scandal". On February 18, 2011, a federal jury found Michael Ciavarella guilty of racketeering because of his involvement in accepting illegal payments from Robert Mericle, the developer of PA Child Care, and Attorney Robert Powell, a co-owner of the facility. Ciavarella is facing 38 other counts in federal court.
Semion Mogilevich
Semion Mogilevich (, ; is an organized crime boss and global con artist believed by European and United States federal law enforcement agencies to be the "boss of bosses" of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world. Mogilevich's nicknames include "Don Semyon", and "The Brainy Don" (because of his business acumen and college education). He is believed to control a vast criminal empire, and has been called "the most dangerous mobster in the world". In 2003, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation put Mogilevich on the "Wanted List" for participation in the scheme to defraud investors in Canadian company YBM Magnex International Inc. Frustrated by their previous unsuccessful efforts to charge him for arms trafficking, contract killing, drug trafficking, extortion, and prostitution they had now settled on the large-scale fraud charges as their best hope of running him to ground. He was, however, considered to be the most powerful Russian mobster alive. In a 2006 interview, former Clinton administration anti-organized-crime czar Jon Winer said, "I can tell you that Semion Mogilevich is as serious an organized criminal as I have ever encountered and I am confident that he is responsible for contract killings." On October 22, 2009 he was named by the FBI as the 494th fugitive to be placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. A Ukrainian businessman charged with more than 40 counts of racketeering, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, and other economic crimes carried out in dozens of countries around the world is the newest addition to our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Semion Mogilevich is wanted for his alleged participation in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud investors in the stock of YBM Magnex International, a company he controlled—which had its world headquarters just outside Philadelphia—that was supposed to manufacture magnets but instead bilked investors out of $150 million.
Scott W. Rothstein
Scott W. Rothstein is a disbarred lawyer and the former managing shareholder, chairman, and chief executive officer of the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm. He is accused of funding his philanthropy, political contributions, law firm salaries, and an extravagant lifestyle with a massive 1.2 billion dollar Ponzi scheme. On December 1, 2009. Rothstein turned himself in to federal authorities and was subsequently arrested on charges related to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Although his arraignment plea was not guilty, Rothstein cooperated with the government and reversed his plea to guilty of five federal crimes on January 27, 2010. Bond was denied by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Rosenbaum, who ruled that due to his ability to forge documents, he was considered a flight risk. On June 9, 2010, Rothstein received a 50-year prison sentence after a hearing in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.
AccessHealthSource
On August 31, 2010, eleven defendants were indicted on RICO charges for allegedly assisting AccessHealthSource, a local health care provider, in obtaining and maintaining lucrative contracts with local and state government entities in the city of El Paso, Texas, “through bribery of and kickbacks to elected officials or himself and others, extortion under color of authority, fraudulent schemes and artifices, false pretenses, promises and representations and deprivation of the right of citizens to the honest services of their elected local officials” (see indictment).
Mara Salvatrucha
In the early 2000s, US authorities investigated MS-13 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Eventually the work led to charges against 26 MS-13 members, including 7 trial convictions in January 2010, 18 guilty pleas, and 11 multi-year prison sentences.This also included the alleged first federal death-penalty conviction for an MS-13 member, Alejandro Enrique Ramirez Umana, aka "Wizard" (age 25).
In 2005, in Los Angeles, according to a Jury in a later sentencing phase, Umana murdered Jose Herrera and Gustavo Porras (July 27) and participated and aided and abetted the killing of Andy Abarca (Septmeber 28). He later came to Charlotte, North Carolina, according to witnesses, as a veteran member of MS-13, in order to reorganize the Charlotte cell of the gang.
According to witnesses at his later trial, on December 8, 2007, while in the Las Jarochitas, a family-run restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina, Umana shot Ruben Garcia Salinas fatally in the chest and Manuel Garcia Salinas in the head. Witnesses testified that the shootings took place after the Garcia Salinas brothers had “disrespected” Umana’s gang signs by calling them “fake.” Firing three more shots in the restaurant, according to trial testimony, Umana injured another individual with his gunfire. Trial testimony and evidence showed that Umana later fled back to Charlotte with MS-13 assistance. Umana was arrested five days later in possession of the murder weapon. Additional evidence and testimony from the trial revealed that while Umana was incarcerated while awaiting trial, he coordinated attempts to kill witnesses and informants.
Umana was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 23, 2008. During trial, Umana attempted to bring a knife with him to the courtroom, which was discovered by U.S. Marshals prior to Umana being transported to the courthouse. Thousands of hours were spent on the case over several years. International work was also involved.
The case was investigated by the Charlotte Safe Streets Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Chief Criminal Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina, and Trial Attorney Sam Nazzaro from the Criminal Division’s Gang Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Don Gast and Adam Morris of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina were also members of the government’s trial team.
Charges included:
The jury convicted him on April 19, 2010 of all charges, and additionally found him responsible for the 2005 murders during the sentencing phase. On April 28, a 12-person federal jury in Charlotte voted unanimously to impose the death penalty. On July 27, 2010, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr., of Charlotte, NC, formally imposed the federal death penalty sentence. Also commenting on the decision in the government press release were Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Anne M. Tompkins of the Western District of North Carolina, Owen D Harris, Special Agent in charge of the Charlotte Division of the FBI, and Rodney Monreo, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief.
The case was automatically appealed under Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
International equivalents to RICO
The US RICO legislation has other equivalents in the rest of the world. In spite of Interpol having a standardized definition of RICO-like crimes, the interpretation and national implementation in legislation (and enforcement) widely varies. Most nations do cooperate with the US on RICO enforcement only where their own related laws are specifically broken, but this is in line with the Interpol protocols for such matters.By nation, alphabetically
Without other nations enforcing similar legislation to RICO many cross border RICO cases would not be possible. In the overall body of RICO cases that went to trial, at least 50% have had some non-US enforcement component to them. The offshoring of money away from the US finance system as part racketeering (and especially money laundering) is typically a major contributing factor to this.
However, other countries have laws that enable the government to seize property with unlawful origins. Mexico and Colombia both have specific laws that define the participation in criminal organizations as a separate crime (see Ley Federal contra la Delincuencia Organizada), and separate laws that allow the seizure of goods related with these crimes. (see Ley de Extinción de Dominio). This latter provides a specific chapter titled "International Cooperation", which instructs Mexican authorities to cooperate with foreign authorities with respect to organized crime assets within Mexico, and provides the framework by which Mexican authorities may politely request the cooperation of foreign authorities with respect to assets located outside of Mexico, in terms of any international instruments they may be party to.
Arguably, this may be construed as allowing the application of the RICO Act in Mexico, provided the relevant international agreements exist among Mexico and countries with RICO or RICO-equivalent provisions.
See also
References
Further Reading
External links
Category:1970 in law Category:Organized crime terminology Category:United States federal criminal legislation Category:American Mafia events Category:Inchoate offenses
da:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act de:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act it:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act no:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act fi:Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ActThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.