Do You Have a RICO Claim?

A RICO claim cannot exist in the absence of criminal activity.

The simplest way to put this concept is: no crime - no RICO violation. This rule applies even in the context of civil RICO claims. Every RICO claim must be based upon a violation of one of the crimes listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1). The RICO Act refers to such criminal activity as racketeering activity. RICO claims cannot be based upon breach of contract, broken promises, negligence, defective product design, failed business transactions, or any number of other factual scenarios that may give rise to other claims under the common law. This being said, a RICO claim can be based upon violations of the criminal mail and wire fraud statutes. The mail and wire fraud statutes are very broad. If a RICO claim is based only upon violations of the mail or wire fraud statutes, however, courts are likely to subject the claims to stricter scrutiny. Courts look more favorably upon RICO claims based upon true criminal behavior, such as bribery, kickbacks, extortion, obstruction of justice, and clearly criminal schemes that are advanced by the use of the mails and wires.

Not only must a RICO claim be based upon criminal activity, but the criminal acts must constitute a pattern of criminal activity. A single criminal act, short-term criminal conduct, or criminal actions that bear no relationship to each other will not give rise to a RICO claim. The United States Supreme Court has ruled that criminal actions constitute a pattern only if they are related and continuous. In order to be related, the criminal acts must involve the same victims, have the same methods of commission, involve the same participants, or be related in some other fashion. A pattern may be sufficiently continuous if the criminal actions occurred over a substantial period of time or posed a threat of indefinite duration. The former patterns are referred to as closed-ended patterns; the latter patterns are referred to as open-ended patterns. Accordingly, even if you have been injured by a criminal act, you will not have a RICO claim unless that criminal act is part of a larger pattern of
criminal activity.

if you discovered or reasonably should have discovered your injury four or more years ago.

Many people are mistaken that civil RICO claims are not subject to a statute of limitations. True, Congress failed to include a statute of limitations when it passed the RICO Act, but the United States Supreme Court has remedied that oversight and imposed a four-year statute of limitations on all civil RICO claims. Civil RICO’s statute of limitations begins to run when the victim discovers or reasonably should have discovered his injury. Many people also believe that the statute of limitations is reset every time a new criminal act is committed - this is not true. Once a victim is aware or should be aware of his injury, the victim has four years to discover the remaining elements of his claim and bring suit. A victim cannot sit on his rights and refrain from filing suit in the face of known injuries. That being said, however, there are several equitable doctrines that may toll or suspend the running of the statute of limitations. If a defendant fraudulently conceals facts that are essential to the victim’s ability to purse his rights, the running of the statute of limitations may be tolled. In addition, acts of duress, such as if you sue me, I’ll kill you, may toll the running of the statute of limitations. All tolling doctrines are based upon whether it is fair, under the circumstances, to bar the victim’s claims on the basis of the running of the statute of limitations. Also, if a defendant engages in a new pattern of racketeering, that causes new and independent injuries, a new limitations period may apply to those new and independent injuries.

Of course, the foregoing are merely general considerations and you should consult with an attorney to determine whether the facts of your particular case give rise to a RICO claim.

In order to obtain a preliminary case evaluation, please provide responses to the questions on the form found in the link below. These questions are adapted from the RICO Case Statement that generally must be filed with the United States District Court in each case.