Opinion ID: 3051440
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Civil Enforcement Under RICO

Text: RICO focuses on “racketeering activity,” which the statute defines as a number of specific criminal acts under federal and state laws. See 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1). As relevant to this case, acts which are indictable under § 274 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) are included in the definition of racketeering activity. 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1)(F). INA § 274 (codified as amended at 8 U.S.C. § 1324) criminalizes the bringing in, transportation, harboring, and employment of undocumented aliens. Substantive violations of RICO are defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1962. Under § 1962(c), it is illegal for any person “to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of [an] enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity,” where that enterprise affects interstate commerce. It is also illegal for any person to conspire to do so. 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d). A “pattern of racketeering activity” requires at least two predicate acts of racketeering activity, as defined in 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1), within a period of ten years. 18 U.S.C. § 1961(5).1 1 RICO violations are criminally punishable by fines, forfeiture, and imprisonment. 18 U.S.C. § 1963(a). CANYON COUNTY v. SYNGENTA SEEDS 2739 Under RICO’s civil enforcement mechanism, “[a]ny person injured in his business or property by reason of a violation of [18 U.S.C. § 1962] may sue therefor in any appropriate United States district court and shall recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee . . . .” 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c). To have standing under § 1964(c), a civil RICO plaintiff must show: (1) that his alleged harm qualifies as injury to his business or property; and (2) that his harm was “by reason of” the RICO violation, which requires the plaintiff to establish proximate causation. Holmes v. Sec. Investor Prot. Corp., 503 U.S. 258, 268 (1992); Sedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479, 496 (1985).