MEMORANDUM
Introduction: The RICO Criminal Defense Practice
The RICO Act is very significant considering the prevalent infiltration of organized crimes in trade and commerce which remarkably eroded the stability of the national economy by influencing legitimate businesses and labor unions. Organized crimes have become global and the same becomes a threat to national economy and even corrupt and subvert the democratic process in the United States. The RICO Act helps in preventing organized crimes involved in racketeering from infiltrating legitimate organizations that are involved in the interstate and foreign commerce. With its wider scope of criminalizing the offenders, the growing needs for the practice of the RICO criminal defense practice is now inevitable. Thus, law firms will benefit from pursuing this area of specialization, which is no longer a new venture for law firms. In addition, the demand for RICO criminal defense attorney is growing and the state to state prosecutions have become aggressive which means it is practical to anticipate that more cases against RICO offenders will be filed in court annually.
Body: The RICO Act and prosecutions
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act was legislated on October 15, 1970. It becomes part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 under Title IX. The main spirit of this legislation is to provide for stiffer criminal penalties for individuals who are guilty of engaging in racketeering activities. It also provides for civil action against the commission of organized crimes. The RICO Act has a wide coverage that includes crimes involving enterprises that can affect both the interstate and foreign commerce (US Department of Justice, 2016). The Act grants the law enforcement agencies as well as the state prosecutors the creative way of investigating, indicting and convicting individuals who are engaged in organized crimes.
Aside from providing tougher criminal penalties on racketeering crimes, the Act also provides for the forfeiture of the properties involved in the commission of activities involving criminal enterprises. It also gives the government the power and authority to bring civil actions against organized crimes such as freezing assets and asset forfeiture (Carlan, Nored, and Downey, 2016). The RICO Act introduces new crimes and provides for new approaches to criminal prosecution. It adds more crimes that are criminally punishable with an expansive scope that include federal and state offenses and acts that are considered as felonies. It can be noted that many states have enacted their own legislation that are patterned to the provisions of the RICO Act that enhances the state to state level of racketeering prosecution (Scheb, 2015). This fact definitely maintains the growing need for criminal defense practice as the number of prosecutions under the Act continues to rise. In 1990 about 2% of the prosecuted offenders were convicted under the RICO Act for racketeering and criminal enterprise statutes (Carlson and Finn, 1993). This statistic continues to grow owing to the aggressive actions taken by the law enforcement agencies in the implementation of the Act. The RICO Act also deviates from the double jeopardy clause under criminal laws which means that an accused may still be charged, prosecuted and convicted to the crimes covered by the Act even if similar charges have been filed against him under a different criminal statute for the same elements of the crime (Finkelman, 2006).
Conclusion: The need for Defense Attorney is justified
According to Gardner and Anderson (2015), about a hundred or more criminal and civil prosecutions under the Act are brought before the United States courts. Considering there are more than half a dozen distinct racketeering crimes that are covered by the statute, it is expected that the need for RICO criminal defense practice will also increase in anticipation of the widespread prosecution for these crimes. Moreover, it is very costly for enterprises to have their assets and property seized by the government and to answer for civil claims. Hiring a RICO defense attorney, although may still be costly, will offer them a cheaper alternative than from losing against a more expensive RICO claim.
Sincerely,
References:
Carlan, P., Nored, L.S. and Downey, R.A. (2016). A Brief Introduction to Criminal Law Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Carlson, K. and Finn, P. (1993). Prosecuting Criminal Enterprises: Federal Offense and Offenders. NCJ.
Finkelman, P. (2006). The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties: A - F, Index, Volume 1. New York: Routledge.
Gardner. T.J. and Anderson. T.M. (2015). Criminal Law. New York: Cengage Learning.
Scheb, J.M. (2015). Criminal Law. Connecticut: Cengage Learning.
US Department of Justice (2016). Criminal Rico: 18 U.S.C. 1961-1968. Washington: US Department of Justice.
