Racketeering
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Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the persons set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.[1]
Narrowly, it means
Originally and often still specifically, racketeering may refer to an organized criminal act in which the perpetrators offer a service that will not be put into effect, offer a service to solve a nonexistent problem, or offer a service that solves a problem that would not exist without the racket. However, racketeers may also sometimes offer an ostensibly effectual service outside of the law to solve an actual existing problem. The traditional and historically most common example of a racket is the "protection racket", in which racketeers offer to protect a business from robbery or vandalism; however, the racketeers will themselves coerce or threaten the business into accepting this service, often with the threat (implicit or otherwise) that failure to acquire the offered services will lead to the racketeers themselves contributing to the existing problem. In many cases, the potential problem may be caused by the same party that offers to solve it, but that fact may be concealed, with the intent to engender continual patronage. The protection racket is thus often a method of extortion, at least in practice.
However, the term "racket" has expanded in definition over time and may now be used less strictly to refer to any continuous or repeated illegal
The term "racketeering" was coined by the Employers' Association of Chicago in June 1927 in a statement about the influence of organized crime in the Teamsters Union.[3] Specifically, a racket was defined by this coinage as being a service that calls forth its own demand, and would not have been needed otherwise.[3]
RICO Act
On October 15, 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (
18 U.S.C. § 1961(10) provides that the Attorney General of the United States may designate any department or agency to conduct investigations authorized by the RICO statute and such department or agency may use the investigative provisions of the statute or the investigative power of such department or agency otherwise conferred by law. Absent a specific designation by the Attorney General, jurisdiction to conduct investigations for violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1962 lies with the agency having jurisdiction over the violations constituting the pattern of racketeering activity listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1961.[4]
In the United States, civil racketeering laws are also used in federal and state courts.
Examples
Many types of crime can be covered by the "RICO" Act[5]
- A protection racket is a form of extortion whereby racketeers offer to "protect" property from damage in exchange for a fee, while also threatening (possibly in a veiled way), in part or in whole, to execute the kind of damage they claim to be offering protection against.
- A fencing racket is an operation specializing in the resale of stolen goods.
- A numbers racket is any unauthorized lottery or illegal gambling operation.
- Money laundering and other creative accounting practices that are misused in ways to disguise sources of illegal funds.
- Organized, coordinated, and repeated or regular armed robbery, bank robbery and art theft
- Terrorism
- Organized retail crime and shoplifting
- Mail robbery and package theft rings
- auto theft and chop shopoperations
- Counterfeit consumer goods such as counterfeit medications, counterfeit electronic components, counterfeit watches, copyright infringement, art forgery and identity document forgery
- Illegal taxicab operations
- Identity theft and sale of personal data
- Kidnapping and ransom rings
- murder-for-hireservices
- White-collar financial crime operations, including: front running, market manipulation, and insider trading
- Bribery and police corruption
- Organized diploma mills
- Loan sharkingrackets
- Computer crimes
- designer drugs, performance-enhancing substances and unlicensed pharmaceuticals
- explosives
- Extortion rackets
- Blackmail operations
- counterfeit coinoperations
- Organized sexual tourism, and commercial sexual exploitation of children
- Cigarette smugglingrackets
- Organized witness tampering and intimidation
- Modern piracy rackets
- Business skimming operations
- Illicit gems and blood diamond operations
- bookmaking, and match fixing
- Human trafficking rings, including: trafficking of children, sex trafficking, labor trafficking, bride buying and debt bondage
- People smuggling rings
- Antiquities trade operations
- Organ traffickingrings
- Rum-running rackets (or alcohol smuggling), caffeinated alcoholic drink operations, illegal sale of alcohol to minors, and moonshine operations
- Illegal nuclear power trade operations
- Illegal subleasing rackets
- fashion companies
- Political corruption
- Corporate corruption
- Bid rigging and price fixing
- Labor corruption or labor racketeering
- Illegal sports, including underground fight clubs, street racing and baiting
See also
- Addiopizzo
- Confidence trick
- Pizzo (extortion)
References
- ^ Lou, Michelle; Griggs, Brandon (March 26, 2019). "What is racketeering? The crime, explained". CNN. Archived from the original on September 24, 2023. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Racketeering". August 2023. Archived from the original on March 22, 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
- ^ ISBN 1-58046-173-5
- ^ "Organized Crime and Racketeering". Usdoj.gov. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ What Is Racketeering?, by Black's Law Dictionary