What is Racketeering?
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Racketeering is the act of operating an illegal business or scheme in order to make a profit, perpetrated by a structured group. It is a broad category of criminal acts that includes bribery, sexual exploitation of children, and illegal gambling, among many others. Racketeering is closely associated with organized crime, since both are conducted by groups.
Racketeering encompasses many criminal acts. It includes theft and fraud against businesses or individuals. Governments can be victimized by racketeering; examples include counterfeiting money and trading in untaxed alcohol. Racketeering can also take the form of providing illegal services, such as prostitution or drug trafficking. Racketeering also takes place among legitimate businesses or labor unions, where it is sometimes referred to as white-collar crime. Examples include extortion and money laundering.
The criminal organizations who engage in racketeering often have legitimate businesses, for instance licensed gaming establishments or a labor-based business such as garbage collection, in order to provide cover for their rackets. In addition, racketeering is often aided by the bribing, blackmailing, or extortion of public officials or civil servants. Legitimate business owners can be similarly manipulated in order to help criminal groups and their racketeering practices to appear lawful.
While all forms of racketeering are targeted by law enforcement agencies, of particular concern to the United States government is labor racketeering. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines labor racketeering as the manipulation of a labor force, which affects all industries and businesses related to that labor group. Beginning in the 1950s, the FBI has investigated criminal organizations, especially La Cosa Nostra or the Mafia, with labor union ties and learned that many of their operatives pose as or are in collusion with union members while engaging in labor racketeering. These racketeers extort union officials or bribe them with offers of favorable contracts or settled disputes, or otherwise coerce them to accept certain terms or demands. The ultimate goal of most labor racketeering is the control of health, welfare, and pension plans of union members, the total assets of which amount to several billion dollars.
Labor racketeering not only denies laborers their rights, but also results in economic loss to workers, the industry, and consumers. The FBI has determined that labor racketeering leads to increased labor costs, which are passed on to consumers and cost the American public millions of dollars annually. To target entire corrupt entities instead of replaceable individuals, racketeering is federally prosecuted under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute. Through the use of this statute, the government hopes to eliminate the corruption caused by racketeering.
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It all comes down to this: all law enforcement agencies -- even the prison systems -- fall under the wing of the Justice Department. make too loud of a noise and you could find yourself investigated. - anon51315
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After my son was tried and found guilty I started wondering, is California part of the USA? Not being familiar with our justice system at all, I started watching and learning the differences of each state. Then I realized how the outcome of trials are often in the control of the prosecutor and judge. Since my son went to prison in California ten years ago, I have learned the corrections officers are unionized and have a lot of power in California. There was an article in a Tennessee newspaper saying they have new prisons and are basically recruiting prisoners from other states. The CO's in CA responded this would be taking bread out of their families' mouths. The prisons in CA are way over crowded. We're talking 200 to 300 percent. The prisoners are not getting good food, medical care, visits from loved ones, etc. due to the cost of employing more COs. After learning all this I found out my son's prosecutor was found guilty of manipulating a jury and fired after 30 years. He also was found guilty in Northern California's 9th District court. Wonder how many this one man sent to prison that don't belong there? Also, what the family orders for the quarterly package comes from the company store for about three times more. The prison takes 55.5 percent of all money sent to the prisoners. I have often mentioned this seems like racketeering to me. Someone from CA mentioned to me that the governor said in his acceptance speech there needed to be something done about CO's union power.This was quickly put aside. If this is so profitable for them how many more prisons can they build. What will happen when more people are locked up than not? Not to mention there will be a CA culture of X prisoners and the far reaching effect. It will take generations for this to correct itself. Why hasn't this gone to the U.S. Supreme Court as racketeering? - anon41842
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I completely agree with ScatterBrain. Congress is in collusion with the environmental groups, unions, lobbyists and the main stream media. They are perpetuating fraud against the American people and should be charged with racketeering. Where is a legal firm or national organization with the backbone to file a national class action suit against them on behalf of the American public? - anon36050
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I am a firm believer that the government should be charged with racketeering due to the fact they are taking our hard earned money from us the taxpayer and giving it to companies (GM, Chrysler, the banks, etc...) and then telling them who to fire and hire. Is this not a form of racketeering? So does the RICO act include charging our government?
- ScatterBrain
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If a Rhodesian Ridgeback dog club fixes the price, commits illegal acts to keep breeders who sell puppies under their established price from breeding and act like an organized group for that purpose, is that racketeering? - anon21571
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It seems to me that many government agencies are racketeering these days. The police auctions are trouble. The fix is in at motor vehicle in my state and most likely other places. The insurance companies seem be doing this also. Health insurance dictates which drugs a doctor offers his patients. This reflects from the lobbists in DC.They are very powerful special interests. The FEMA disaster coverage is diverted from ordinary people who are victims of the storms. The list goes on. The fox is in the henhouse and the chickens have come home to roost. - anon18001
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If a corporation uses as its "corporate attorney" a partner of a law firm who repeatedly does not resolve cases and funnels these cases to his firm, is this considered a form of racketeering? He basically is stirring up trouble with employees of the corporation to further his business interest in the firm. - anon14237
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There is this guy in our area who hands out business cards that say he handles investments and does financial and estate planning. The truth is that he is not a certified financial planner and his sole investment is insurance annuities, thus he is really an insurance sales man. I know of several people where he has convinced them to invest the vast majority of their money in these annuities (obviously he receives commission for this) along with recommending specific real estate purchases by the same developer within the same community - he even helps them find mortgage brokers. These folks are suspecting that he was getting kick backs from one of the realtors involved or perhaps the developer. Because he has misrepresented the true nature of his services his recommendations were not viewed as a sales pitch, and there appears to be a repeated pattern to this activity due to the number of people involved. So the question is - does this constitute racketeering or have any laws been violated? - haygirl
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It is also a county business as jail beds are filled with bogus and erroneous police reports. The state of California pays $200 or more per bed in each cell (per day) according to a Correctional Officer at Fresno County Jail.
- sn03sons
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If racketeering is illegal, then why does the government pay children protective services to take children from parents? This "legal activity" was signed by ex pres William Clinton; if children protective services, of any state, takes a child from parent's home, goes to court with fictitious statements to keep child in foster home, holds child in foster home for over 15 months (if child remains in foster home for duration of 15 months, child must be adopted by foster parents or someone else qualified to adopt child), and children protective services (a branch of our federal government, as well as state) earns such bonuses, for example, the amount of 5000 when a child is in a foster home for 15 months, and additional 2000 when a child is adopted by foster parent.
What the heck has to happen before someone looks into the illegal activities of our county courts and find that our children are actually being used for our states to obtain money (bonuses) from the government...
I cannot believe that an attorney (and not a very good one) in the form of a "president of the united states" (Bill Clinton), can be so blinded to sign a bill to continue giving states the incentive to take children from parents (most times, under false pretense!) to "earn" bonuses (money) from government. (Again, they take parents to court and lie under oath, claiming that parent is abusive or neglectful of child, without any "proof," and this is done in a civil court called "family court." What should have been done: abuse or neglect of child should have been labeled a "criminal act," not loosely defined in statutes under "welfare of children!")
This is called "racketeering" in a business sense, how can our government get away with this???? - lisarose
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Written by
J. Dellaporta
Last Modified: 04 November 2009
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