Opinion ID: 418131
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: What RICO Prohibits

Text: 3 RICO's purpose is the imposition of enhanced criminal penalties and new civil sanctions to provide new legal remedies for all types of organized criminal behavior, that is, enterprise criminality--from simple political corruption to sophisticated white-collar crime schemes to traditional Mafia-type endeavors. 9 RICO does not, however, criminalize conduct that was legal before its enactment. Its application depends on the existence of racketeering activity violating some other criminal statute, state or federal. 10 4 Section 1962(a) of the statute prohibits the use of illegally-derived funds to acquire or maintain an interest in an enterprise by legal means. 11 Section 1962(c) proscribes the illegal use of an enterprise. Section 1962(d) makes illegal a conspiracy to violate RICO's substantive provisions, requiring the government to prove that the defendant agreed to participate in the enterprise's affairs through a pattern of racketeering. Each section requires that the enterprise affect interstate commerce. 5 The government establishes a Sec. 1962(a) violation by proving the existence of an enterprise, the defendant's derivation of income from a pattern of racketeering activity, and the use of any part of that income in acquiring an interest in or operating the enterprise. The government establishes a Sec. 1962(c) violation by proving the existence of an enterprise, the defendant's employment by or association with that enterprise, and the defendant's conduct of or participation in the conduct of the enterprise's affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity. 12 Because this case requires us to examine the proof necessary to demonstrate both the existence of an enterprise and the connection of a defendant to it, we discuss each element briefly.