Opinion ID: 674597
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Predicate Act Sufficiency

Text: 176 Quang's sufficiency argument is that the Asian Market robbery in Tennessee was an independent venture of some of the gang members and was not sufficiently related to the affairs of BTK to constitute a predicate act by that enterprise. This contention need not detain us long. 177 To support a conviction under RICO, the government must establish a relationship between the predicate acts and the criminal enterprise. See United States v. Simmons, 923 F.2d at 951. That relationship is satisfied if the offense was related to the enterprise's activities, whether or not it was in furtherance of those activities, or if the defendant was enabled to commit the offense solely by virtue of his position in the enterprise. See, e.g., United States v. Locascio, 6 F.3d 924, 943 (2d Cir.1993), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1646, 128 L.Ed.2d 365 (1994); United States v. Robilotto, 828 F.2d 940, 947-48 (2d Cir.1987), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 1011, 108 S.Ct. 711, 98 L.Ed.2d 662 (1988); United States v. Simmons, 923 F.2d at 951; United States v. LeRoy, 687 F.2d 610, 617 (2d Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1174, 103 S.Ct. 823, 74 L.Ed.2d 1019 (1983). 178 Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, as we must in connection with any sufficiency challenge, see Part II.F. below, we conclude that an ample showing of relatedness was made here. Kenny Vu, who provided the bulk of the testimony of Quang's involvement in this robbery, testified that Quang proposed robbing a jewelry store that he said was run by people who were Vietnamese. He came to the Gainesville house to make his proposal where BTK members were staying, and he took BTK members with him to execute the robbery. Both the selection of an Asian target and the manner of perpetration of the robbery (see Part I.B.5. above) were indistinguishable from the manner of BTK's operations. And though Thai had not ordered this particular robbery, when the robbers returned with their $66,000 in loot, they turned it over to Thai. The evidence thus was more than sufficient to support the conclusion that the Asian Market robbery was related to the affairs of the BTK enterprise.