The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly known as RICO, provides the government with authority to prosecute for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization and permits a civil cause of action by victims to recover stolen assets. That criminal organization can be devoted to activities such as:
RICO convictions carry severe penalties—each count can result in a $25,000 fine and up to 20 years in prison. Beyond criminal penalties, the government can seize all proceeds from the RICO criminal enterprise through forfeiture, which may even happen before trial. Civil lawsuits can further deprive RICO defendants of their remaining assets. If you are facing RICO charges or asset forfeiture, consulting an experienced criminal defense attorney or criminal attorney NYC is crucial to protect your rights and assets.
In a stunning loss for bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard in the suits to recover assets from the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme, a federal district court disallowed RICO charges against what had been dubbed the Medici Enterprise: Austrian banker Sonja Kohn and 55 other defendants. The judge threw out the RICO charges asserting that, based on the evidence, Picard failed to prove that the Medici Enterprise defendants knew that Madoff was stealing the money he claimed to be investing. Picard had sued the Medici Enterprise for $19.6 billion, which the trustee had hoped to return to innocent victims of the Madoff fraud. To date, Picard has recovered over $9.3 billion.
Although hard to defend, experienced attorneys like Joseph Tacopina can challenge criminal and civil RICO charges. Bernie Madoff is currently serving a 150-year sentence in the Butner Federal Correctional Complex with an improbable release date of 2139. However, Madoff did not stand trial for his crime of bilking $17.3 billion from investors worldwide. Instead, he pleaded guilty to 11 counts of fraud after turning himself in on December 11, 2008, just as the financial markets were collapsing and unraveling his Ponzi scheme.