Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here. In a pivotal scene
Speaker 1: in the movie The Godfather, the aging mafia kingpin Vita
Speaker 1: cor Leone played by Marlon Brando, calls a meeting of
Speaker 1: prominent mafio so from across the United States to strike
Speaker 1: a pact the drugs for the new game in town,
Speaker 1: and cor Leone, hesitant at first about entering the narcotics business,
Speaker 1: proposes that the competing mob operations work together to control
Speaker 1: the drug trade nationwide. The Godfather is fiction, but that
Speaker 1: scene is reminiscent of real world criminal conspiracies hatched by
Speaker 1: mob bosses like John the Teflon, Don Gotti and Anthony
Speaker 1: Tony Duck's Corralo. These types of backroom deals were the
Speaker 1: bread and butter of the mob business model for decades.
Speaker 1: The cops and FBI might nab some lower level operatives
Speaker 1: for murder, bribery, or extortion, but the bosses at the
Speaker 1: top were able to keep their hands clean. Gatty's business
Speaker 1: card said he was a salesman for a plumbing contractor,
Speaker 1: and since prosecutors couldn't connect him or other mafia dons,
Speaker 1: directly to specific crimes. The biggest criminals were seemingly untouchable.
Speaker 1: Then came the RICO Act of nineteen seventy, otherwise known
Speaker 1: as the Racketeer, Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. RICO gave
Speaker 1: the fed's new power to indict mob kingpins for various
Speaker 1: rackets or crimes committed by their underlings. Before the article
Speaker 1: this episode is based on House to Works. Spoke with
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Grell, an attorney and adjunct professor at the University
Speaker 1: of Minnesota Law School who specializes in RICO law. He
Speaker 1: said the philosophy behind RICO was to get the Vita
Speaker 1: cor Leones of the world. RICO goes into that conference
Speaker 1: room where you've got a bunch of people who never
Speaker 1: get their hands sturdy, who aren't out dealing drugs, murdering people,
Speaker 1: or engaging in any criminal activity directly. Those are the
Speaker 1: people that RICO is designed to get, the people who
Speaker 1: engage others to engage in rack tearing. A racket is
Speaker 1: any organized criminal scheme like, for example, the twentieth century
Speaker 1: mob rackets of prostitution, gambling, illegal lotteries run running during Prohibition,
Speaker 1: and the protection racket in which the mob offers businesses
Speaker 1: paid protection from criminal gangs, notably themselves, But as defined
Speaker 1: by RICO, racketeering is whenever an individual operates or manages
Speaker 1: an enterprise through a pattern or series of racketeering activities.
Speaker 1: The alleged racketeer does not have to commit any of
Speaker 1: the crimes themselves or even know about the crimes, which
Speaker 1: can include everything from kidnapping to wire fraud to biological weapons.
Speaker 1: A Contrary to popular belief, RICO cases aren't easier to
Speaker 1: prosecute than regular criminal cases, and Hollywood depictions often get
Speaker 1: it wrong, though Grell said that the RICO episode of
Speaker 1: Better Call Saul pretty much nailed it. Although the language
Speaker 1: of RICO is broad, the Supreme Court and federal appeal,
Speaker 1: those courts have narrowed its application. As a consequence, the U.
Speaker 1: S Department of Justice very rarely pursues racketeering charges. Grell
Speaker 1: said that most of the time, people who commit crimes
Speaker 1: are out there committing the crimes. They're dealing drugs, they're
Speaker 1: murdering people. Why would the Feds use RICO when they
Speaker 1: can just charge them with the underlying crime. The DJ
Speaker 1: only uses RICO when there's really no other alternative, like
Speaker 1: with John Gotti. To make a racketeering charge stick, you
Speaker 1: first need to prove that a pattern of related criminal
Speaker 1: activity took place, whether it was murder, extortion, drug dealing,
Speaker 1: or some other racket. Again, you don't have to prove
Speaker 1: that Gouty himself pulled the trigger or ordered the hit,
Speaker 1: but that someone in the enterprise did the second, and
Speaker 1: most importantly, you need to prove that Gotti or any
Speaker 1: other alleged racketeer operated or managed the enterprise. Grell points
Speaker 1: out that under RICO law, the enterprise or organization itself
Speaker 1: isn't on trial for racketeering, but rather the individuals in charge,
Speaker 1: defined as those who quote exercise discretionary authority on behalf
Speaker 1: of the enterprise. If an individual associated with an enterprise
Speaker 1: simply follows orders and exercises no discretion in carrying out
Speaker 1: their duties, most courts agree that such low level associates
Speaker 1: cannot be held liable under RICO, but there are also
Speaker 1: civil Rico suits. The original Rico Act contained a provision
Speaker 1: allowing civil lawsuits in which plaintiffs could collect triple damages
Speaker 1: if they were injured by a RICO violation. In the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties that led to a wave of civil reco claims,
Speaker 1: some of which had flimsy legal rounding. This led to
Speaker 1: tighter restrictions on civil rico suits, including a four year
Speaker 1: statute of limitations. In recent years, some of the biggest
Speaker 1: scandals in the news cycle have also been the subject
Speaker 1: of civil racketeering lawsuits, including the Catholic Church sexual abuse
Speaker 1: scandal and the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. In that example,
Speaker 1: in addition into filing individual sexual harassment lawsuits against this
Speaker 1: media mogul, lawyers for the victims have also filed a
Speaker 1: civil reco case allegingd that Weinstein and his enablers operated
Speaker 1: a criminal organization that the lawyers are referring to as
Speaker 1: the Weinstein Sexual Enterprise. If the allegation sticks, then Weinstein
Speaker 1: and his associates could owe triple damages to their victims
Speaker 1: under civil racketeering law. Here are a few more traditional
Speaker 1: rico suits from recent years. In there was the Atlanta
Speaker 1: cheating scandal. Eleven teachers and administrators from Atlanta, Georgia's schools
Speaker 1: were convicted of racketeering, and not because they were ordering
Speaker 1: hits on the lunch lady or running a speakeasy in
Speaker 1: the faculty lounge, but because they had conspired to cheat
Speaker 1: on their students standardized tests, and schools that performed better
Speaker 1: on the tests got more money from the government. So
Speaker 1: these ringleaders created a system that rewarded teachers for correcting
Speaker 1: their students answers and punished those who refused to play ball.
Speaker 1: That same year, the soccer world was rocked by the
Speaker 1: indictment of nine prominent officials from FIFA, the sports international
Speaker 1: governing body, on racketeering charges. The Department of Justice alleged
Speaker 1: that since nineteen ninety one, the men had run a
Speaker 1: kick back scheme. The used bribery to secure the rights
Speaker 1: to certain FIFA events, including the World Cup. As of
Speaker 1: this writing, only two of the accused have been convicted
Speaker 1: of criminal racketeering conspiracy, a charge the caries of to
Speaker 1: twenty years in prison. Then there's the opioid crisis. You
Speaker 1: may know that a number of pharmaceutical companies have been
Speaker 1: targeted for their role in worsening the deadly opioid epidemic
Speaker 1: in the US, but five executives at Insist Therapeutics were
Speaker 1: convicted of engineering a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe
Speaker 1: their fentinel based mouth spray even when it wasn't medically necessary.
Speaker 1: The charge was racketeering because the executives didn't pay the
Speaker 1: bribes themselves, but helped organize phony speaker programs in which
Speaker 1: doctors were recruited and paid off. Grel said, rico is
Speaker 1: a good tool when you're working with large groups, like
Speaker 1: a drug dealing enterprise or corporation. If you substitute that
Speaker 1: room full of mafioso's with the board of directors for
Speaker 1: any corporation, it's the same thing. Today's episode is based
Speaker 1: on the article Racketeering Isn't just a crime for mobsters
Speaker 1: on how stuff works dot Com, written by Dave Rouges.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership
Speaker 1: with how stuff works dot Com, and it is produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit
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