Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico)A federal law, passed in 1970, that allows prosecution and civil penalties for certain acts (including illegal gambling, bribery, kidnapping, murder, and money laundering) performed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise. RICO has been used to prosecute members of the mafia, the Hells Angels motorcycle gang, and Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group, among others.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The RICO Act focuses specifically onracketeering, and it allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to door assisted them, closing a perceived loophole that allowed a person who instructed someone else to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because he did not actually commit the crime personally
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| Long title | An Act relating to the control of organized crime in the United States. |
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| Nicknames | Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 |
| Enacted by | the 91st United States Congress |
| Effective | October 15, 1970 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | 91-452 |
| Statutes at Large | 84 Stat. 922-3 aka 84 Stat. 941 |
| Codification | |
| Titles amended | 18 U.S.C.: Crimes and Criminal Procedure |
| U.S.C.sections created | 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968 |