United States v. Bonanno Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, 879 F.2d 20 (2d Cir. 1989)

Second Circuit opinion of June 23, 1989 holding that the United States may not sue for treble damages under civil RICO, in the government's suit against the Bonanno family.

Date: 1989-06-23
Kind: court-opinion
Source: CourtListener (Free Law Project), text of the opinion
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: Opinion of a United States court. Works of the federal judiciary are in the public domain in the United States. The text was read on CourtListener.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, decided June 23, 1989. The appeal arose from the government’s civil RICO suit against the Bonanno family and the men it named as the family’s officers and members (683 F. Supp. 1411).

The question was a statutory one, which the court framed in large part as “whether the United States is a ‘person’” under RICO’s definition. It held that the United States may not sue for treble damages under the civil remedy, wrote that the government’s reading “would not be liberal construction but liberal re-writing of the statute,” and ended: “Accordingly, the judgment appealed from is in all respects affirmed.”

The opinion decides no question about who held what position in the family.

itemUnited States v. Bonanno Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra, 683 F. Supp. 1411 (E.D.N.Y. 1988)Ruling of March 24, 1988 on motions to dismiss the government's civil RICO suit against the Bonanno family, its alleged officers and Teamsters Local 814. It summarizes what the amended complaint alleged about each defendant's position.