The Organized Crime Control Act (OCCA) of 1970 was signed into law by President Nixon. After the Congressional hearings in the late 50s and early 60s, it became pretty clear that something needed to be done to combat organized crime, despite decades of denial by J. Edgar Hoover that the Mafia even existed. The most famous part of the law was section 901(a) which discussed prosecution of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. Its acronym – the “RICO Act” – may have been a tongue-in-cheek homage to Little Caesar (the movie, not the pizza) whose gangster anti-hero was Cesare “Rico” Bandello, played by Edward G Robinson.
Mother of Mercy! Is this the start of RICO?
Not only does RICO provide for criminal prosecution of members of a criminal organization, it also provides civil penalties as well for the victims of such an organization – triple damages, in fact!
There are over 30 criminal acts – known as RICO “predicates” – which are covered under this law. These predicates include your normal Mafia-type stuff: murder, arson, loan-sharking, gambling, theft, counterfeiting, drug-trafficking, etc.
To qualify for a RICO prosecution, two instances of any one of the “racketeering” predicates must occur within a 10-year period. They have to exhibit a pattern of continuity, rather than being isolated events, and they have to have been conducted as part of an “enterprise.” Per the law: “enterprise is defined as including any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity.”
A Transitional Association, in fact
I left out a few RICO predicates in my list above, and here is where it gets interesting: fraud, including bankruptcy and securities fraud. Money laundering. Immigration fraud and misuse of visas for financial gain. Slavery. Obstruction of justice. Obstruction of criminal investigations. Bribery. Obstruction of state or local law enforcement. Currency and foreign transaction reporting. Sexual exploitation of children. Illegal surveillance. Fraud in foreign labor contracting. Economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. Coercion of or retaliation against witnesses and whistleblowers.
Re-read each and every crime in that last paragraph – and think back to everything we’ve heard over the past year. The Bondi Bribe. The child rape victim. Melania’s visa bingo. The immigration / white slavery status of all of Trump’s models. Manafort’s bribes and money laundering. Daddy Trump buying Trump casino chips illegally. Threats and witch hunts to find “leakers.”
Even the Trump U fraud that led to a raft of his woes last year, after his racist smearing of Judge Curiel, WAS IN FACT A CIVIL RICO CASE! Which he settled as soon as his other RICO activities with certain foreign entanglements illegally elevated him to be the Chief Executive of a republic now gone bananas.
Yes, you.
Now, here’s where it gets REALLY interesting: Manafort, Flynn, Cohen, Bannon, Trump himself – ALL clearly part of the enterprise. But so were/are people like Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General responsible for prosecuting a Trump-RICO case, and Devin Nunes, the House Intelligence (forsooth!) Committee Chair responsible for investigating the foreign entanglements portion of a Trump-RICO case, who just went running to Trump with news about the investigation.
By a prima facie application of the RICO statutes, just about anyone and everyone involved in bringing a criminal case against the Trump Crime Family is already a member of the Trump Crime Family.
…For now…
Which is why we need an independent, special prosecutor. I hear Preet Bharara and Sally Q Yates are available.
