To begin, this great summation called Civil RICO: Points to Remember, by Paul Andrew Mitchell, provides a succinct breakdown of RICO with corresponding sourcing. One of the objectives of Civil RICO, for example, is to turn victims into prosecutors, “private attorneys general,” dedicated to eliminating racketeering activity. That’s you! Remember racketeering—is the act of engaging in criminal activity as a structured group. The structured group is now government agencies.
Keep in mind RICO has already been successfully used against corrupt politicians like the former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick and his childhood friend Bobby Ferguson. Under the RICO statute, they were convicted on March 11, 2013 of using his office to run a criminal organization to extort bribes in exchange for city contracts. Don’t waver. It can be done.
We’ve also seen how RICO was effectively used against Wall Street. In 1989, for instance, junk bond king, Michael Milken was indicted under RICO. To avoid the harsh criminal RICO penalties, Milken pled guilty to six lesser, non-RICO, securities fraud offenses. Instead of possibly going to prison for life, he served 22 months in jail and paid $1.1 billion in damages. $200 million went to criminal fines and $900 million to civil suits.