Racketeering

{{Short description|Fraudulent criminal endeavor}}
{{Redirect|Wire room|the film|Wire Room}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
'''Racketeering''' is a type of [[organized crime]] in which the persons set up a [[coercion|coercive]], [[fraud|fraudulent]], [[extortion]]ary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "'''racket'''") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/us/what-is-racketeering-trnd|title=What is racketeering? The crime, explained|author=Lou, Michelle; Griggs, Brandon|publisher=[[CNN]]|language=en-US|url-status=live|date=March 26, 2019|access-date=March 22, 2024|archive-date=September 24, 2023|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230924162511/https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/26/us/what-is-racketeering-trnd}}</ref> 

Narrowly, it means [[coercion|coercive]] or [[fraud|fraudulent]] business practices; broadly, it can mean any criminal organization with ongoing profit, as defined in the 1970 [[U.S. RICO Act]], which aimed to curtail the power of the [[Italian-American Mafia|Mafia]] and other organized crime.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/racketeering|title=Racketeering|date=August 2023|access-date=March 22, 2024|archive-date=March 22, 2024|archive-url=https://archive.today/20240322045459/https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/racketeering}}</ref> 

Originally and often still specifically, racketeering may refer to an organized criminal act in which the perpetrators offer a service that will not be put into effect, offer a service to solve a nonexistent problem, or offer a service that solves a problem that would not exist without the racket. However, racketeers may also sometimes offer an ostensibly effectual service outside of the law to solve an actual existing problem. The traditional and historically most common example of a racket is the "[[protection racket]]", in which racketeers offer to protect a business from robbery or vandalism; however, the racketeers will themselves coerce or threaten the business into accepting this service, often with the threat (implicit or otherwise) that failure to acquire the offered services will lead to the racketeers themselves contributing to the existing problem. In many cases, the potential problem may be caused by the same party that offers to solve it, but that fact may be concealed, with the intent to engender continual [[patronage]]. The protection racket is thus often a method of [[extortion]], at least in practice.

However, the definition of the term "racket" has been expanded over time and may now be used less strictly to refer to any continuous or repeated illegal [[organized crime]] operation, including those that do not necessarily involve fraudulent or coercive practices or extortion. For example, "racket" may refer to the "[[numbers racket]]" or the "[[illegal drug trade|drug racket]]", neither of which generally or necessarily involve extortion, coercion, fraud, or [[deception]] with regard to the intended clientele. Because of the clandestine nature of the [[black market]], most proceeds made from criminal rackets often go [[Tax evasion|untaxed]].

The term "racketeering" was coined by the [[Employers' Association of Greater Chicago|Employers' Association of Chicago]] in June 1927 in a statement about the influence of organized crime in the [[International Brotherhood of Teamsters|Teamsters]] Union.<ref name="Witwer">David Witwer, "'The Most Racketeer-Ridden Union in America': The Problem of Corruption in the Teamsters Union During the 1930s", in ''Corrupt Histories'', Emmanuel Kreike and William Chester Jordan, eds., University of Rochester Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-58046-173-5}}</ref>  Specifically, a racket was defined by this coinage as being a service that calls forth its own demand, and would not have been needed otherwise.<ref name="Witwer" />

==RICO Act==
{{Main|Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act}}
On October 15, 1970, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ({{usc|18|1961|1968}}), commonly referred to as the "RICO Act", became [[United States]] law. The RICO Act allows federal law enforcement to charge a person or group of people with racketeering, defined as committing multiple violations of certain varieties within a ten-year period. The purpose of the RICO Act was stated as "the elimination of the infiltration of organized crime and racketeering into legitimate organizations operating in [[interstate commerce]]". S.Rep. No. 617, [[91st United States Congress|91st Cong.]], 1st Sess. 76 (1968). However, the statute is sufficiently broad to encompass [[crime|illegal activities]] relating to any enterprise affecting interstate or foreign [[commerce]].

{{usc|18|1961}}(10) provides that the [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General of the United States]] may designate any department or agency to conduct investigations authorized by the RICO statute and such department or agency may use the investigative provisions of the statute or the investigative power of such department or agency otherwise conferred by law. Absent a specific designation by the Attorney General, jurisdiction to conduct investigations for violations of {{usc|18|1962}} lies with the agency having jurisdiction over the violations constituting the pattern of racketeering activity listed in {{usc|18|1961}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/110mcrm.htm#9-110.010 |title=Organized Crime and Racketeering |publisher=Usdoj.gov |access-date=2012-02-18}}</ref>

In the United States, civil racketeering laws are also used in [[Federal judiciary of the United States|federal]] and [[State court (United States)|state courts]].

== Examples ==
{{unsourced section|date=January 2024}}
Many types of crime can be covered by the "RICO" Act<ref>[https://thelawdictionary.org/article/what-is-racketeering/ What Is Racketeering?], by [[Black's Law Dictionary]]</ref>

* A [[protection racket]] is a form of [[extortion]] whereby racketeers offer to "protect" property from damage in exchange for a fee, while also threatening (possibly in a veiled way), in part or in whole, to execute the kind of damage they claim to be offering protection against.
* A [[Fence (criminal)|fencing racket]] is an operation specializing in the resale of stolen goods.
* A [[Numbers game|numbers racket]] is any unauthorized [[lottery]] or illegal [[gambling]] operation.
* [[Money laundering]] and other [[creative accounting]] practices that are misused in ways to disguise sources of illegal funds.
* Organized, coordinated, and repeated or regular [[theft]] operations, including: [[pickpocketing]], [[burglary]], [[smash and grab]], [[home invasion]], [[gasoline theft]], [[metal theft]], [[train robbery]], [[armed robbery]], [[bank robbery]] and [[art theft]]
* [[Terrorism]]
* [[Organized retail crime]] and [[shoplifting]]
* [[Fraud]] and [[embezzlement]] operations, including: [[credit card fraud]], [[check fraud]], [[health care fraud]], [[welfare fraud]], [[insurance fraud]], [[employment fraud]], [[lottery fraud]], [[disability fraud]], [[charity fraud]], [[mail and wire fraud]], [[securities fraud]], [[bank fraud]], [[mortgage fraud]], [[telemarketing fraud]], [[return fraud]], [[false billing]] and [[electoral fraud]]
* [[Confidence tricks]], including: [[romance scams]], [[larceny]], [[Overpayment scam|overpayment scams]] and [[Advance-fee scam|advance-fee scams]]
* [[Mail robbery]] and [[package theft]] rings
* [[Carjacking#Truck carjacking|Truck theft]], [[auto theft]] and [[chop shop]] operations
* [[Counterfeit]] operations, including: [[Counterfeit consumer goods]] such as [[counterfeit medications]], [[counterfeit electronic components]], [[Counterfeit watch|counterfeit watches]], [[copyright infringement]], [[art forgery]] and [[identity document forgery]]
* [[Illegal taxicab operation|Illegal taxicab operations]]
* [[Identity theft]] and sale of [[personal data]]
* [[Kidnapping]] and [[ransom]] rings
* [[Contract killing]] or [[murder-for-hire]] services
* [[White-collar crime|White-collar]] [[financial crime]] operations, including: [[front running]], [[market manipulation]], and [[insider trading]]
* [[Bribery]] and [[police corruption]]
* Organized [[academic dishonesty]] by school administrators, [[Essay mill|essay mills]], [[contract cheating]], [[diploma mills]]
* [[Loan sharking]] rackets
* [[Computer crime]]s
* [[Drug trafficking]] operations, including: [[depressants]], [[opioids]], [[stimulants]], [[entactogens]], [[hallucinogens]], [[designer drugs]], [[Performance-enhancing substance|performance-enhancing substances]] and [[Medication|unlicensed pharmaceuticals]]
* [[Arms trafficking]] operations, including: [[Firearm|gun-running]], [[Knife|knife-running]] and sale of [[explosives]]
* [[Extortion]] rackets
* [[Blackmail]] operations
* [[Counterfeit money]] and [[counterfeit coin]] operations
* Organized [[prostitution]] operations, including: [[Procuring (prostitution)|procuring]], [[sex work]], [[sexual tourism]], and [[commercial sexual exploitation of children]]
* [[Cigarette smuggling]] rackets
* Organized [[witness tampering]] and [[intimidation]]
* [[Piracy in the 21st century|Modern piracy]] rackets
* [[Skimming (fraud)|Business skimming]] operations
* Illicit [[Gemstone|gems]] and [[blood diamond]] operations
* [[Gaming law|Illegal gambling]], [[bookmaking]], and [[match fixing]]
* [[Human trafficking]] rings, including: [[trafficking of children]], [[sex trafficking]], [[Involuntary servitude|labor trafficking]], [[bride buying]] and [[debt bondage]]
* [[People smuggling]] rings
* [[Antiquities trade]] operations
* [[Organ trafficking]] rings
* [[Rum-running]] rackets (or alcohol smuggling), [[Ban on caffeinated alcoholic drinks in the United States|caffeinated alcoholic drink]] operations, [[Alcohol consumption by youth in the United States|illegal sale of alcohol to minors]], and [[moonshine]] operations
* Illegal [[nuclear power]] trade operations
* Illegal [[Lease#Sublease|subleasing]] rackets
* [[Corporate crime|Criminal operation]] of otherwise ostensibly legal operations, such as [[strip club]]s, [[hotel]]s, [[restaurant]]s, [[casino]]s, [[nightclubs]], [[Bar (establishment)|bar]]s, [[pornographic film]] studios, [[social clubs]], [[construction]] companies, [[salvage yard]]s, [[auto shop]]s, [[laundromat]]s, [[dry cleaner]]s, [[waste management]] firms, [[farms]], [[Property development|property development companies]], [[hospitals]], [[Television studio|television studios]], [[Newsroom|newsrooms]], [[clinics]], [[music stores]], [[hardware stores]], [[fisheries]], [[airline companies]], [[shipyards]], [[Floristry|florist shops]] and [[Fashion company|fashion companies]]
* [[Political corruption]]
* [[Corporate corruption]]
* [[Bid rigging]] and [[price fixing]]
* Labor corruption or labor racketeering
* [[Illegal sports]], including [[Street fighting#Underground street fight clubs|underground fight clubs]], [[street racing]] and [[Baiting (blood sport)|baiting]]

==See also==
* [[Addiopizzo]]
* [[Confidence trick]]
* [[Pizzo (extortion)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Fraud}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Racket (Crime)}}
[[Category:Crimes]]
[[Category:Organized crime]]
[[Category:Organized crime activity]]
[[Category:Organized crime terminology]]
[[Category:Racketeering| ]]