Opinion ID: 776235
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Does Criminal Immunity Preclude Civil RICO Claims?

Text: 35 The remaining question is, if a foreign sovereign cannot be indicted in the United States for RICO predicate crimes, can the civil RICO claims against it proceed? Plaintiff argues that they can because RICO speaks of indictable acts, and not actors, and, therefore, as long as the acts alleged in the complaint constitute a qualifying criminal violation, it would be irrelevant that defendants were immune. See 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1)(B); see also Southway, 198 F.3d at 1215 n.6. This argument is unavailing in the Sixth Circuit because we have rejected civil RICO claims against the federal government on the ground that the government is not indictable. Berger v. Pierce, 933 F.2d 393, 397 (6th Cir. 1991) (The assertion . . . that the FIA [Federal Insurance Administration] was engaged in a RICO conspiracy under section 1962(d) was patently defective as a matter of law, since it is self-evident that a federal agency is not subject to state or federal criminal prosecution.); see also McNeily v. United States, 6 F.3d 343, 350 (5th Cir. 1993) (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is not indictable and thus cannot engage in racketeering activity); but c.f. Republic of the Philippines v. Marcos, 862 F.2d 1355, 1359 (9th Cir. 1988) (en banc) (affirming jurisdiction over civil RICO claims against the former president of the Philippines; no discussion of the indictability issue); American Bonded Warehouse Corp. v. Compagnie Nationale Air France, 653 F. Supp. 861 (N.D. Ill. 1987) (allowing civil RICO claims against an instrumentality of the French government; no discussion of the indictability issue). In light of Berger, we cannot now say that it is only the act, and not the actor, that counts for the purposes of RICO indictability. 36 We note that although a foreign sovereign is not indictable, and therefore not amenable to civil RICO claims, the same conclusions may not follow for individuals who commit criminal acts; such unlawfulness may indicate that they were acting without the authority of the sovereign. Cf. Phaneuf v. Republic of Indonesia, 106 F.3d 302, 306-07 (9th Cir. 1997) (remanding for consideration of whether an individual acted with authority because, if he acted outside the scope of his official authority, he would not be entitled to FSIA immunity); Brown v. Nationsbank Corp., 188 F.3d 579, 587 (5th Cir. 1999) (refusing to apply McNeily to civil RICO claims against FBI agents, even though RICO claims could not be asserted against the FBI itself because the FBI would not be indictable; affirming dismissal of civil RICO claims on other grounds). Plaintiff has not, however, argued on appeal that the individual defendants lacked authority, so the issue is not before us. 37 Having determined that a defendant must be indictable for a civil RICO claim to proceed, and that defendants, on the facts before us in this appeal, are not indictable in the United States for the listed RICO predicate offenses, we disagree with the rationale relied upon by the district court in its ruling on defendant's motion to dismiss.