# Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Title IX: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (18 U.S.C. 1961-1968), 84 Stat. 941-948

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/statutes-at-large-84-stat-941-rico-title-ix/

Title IX of the 1970 Act, the RICO statute: it made it unlawful to conduct an enterprise's affairs through a "pattern of racketeering activity", defined the predicate offenses, and provided prison terms, fines and forfeiture. Section 904 directs that it "be liberally construed to effectuate its remedial purposes."

Title IX of Public Law 91-452, at pages 941 to 948 of volume 84, adds chapter 96, "Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations", to title 18: sections 1961 (definitions), 1962 (prohibited activities), 1963 (criminal penalties), 1964 (civil remedies), 1965 (venue and process), 1966 (expedition of actions), 1967 (evidence) and 1968 (civil investigative demand).

Section 1961 defines "racketeering activity" to include "any act or threat involving murder, kidnaping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, extortion, or dealing in narcotic or other dangerous drugs" chargeable under state law and punishable by more than a year, and acts indictable under listed federal provisions, among them section 1084 (transmission of gambling information), section 1951 (interference with commerce, robbery or extortion), section 1952 (racketeering), section 1955 (illegal gambling businesses), sections 2421-24 (white slave traffic) and the labor-payment and union-embezzlement offenses of title 29. A "pattern of racketeering activity" "requires at least two acts of racketeering activity", the last within ten years of a prior act. An "enterprise" includes "any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity".

Section 1962(c) makes it "unlawful for any person employed by or associated with any enterprise engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce, to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise's affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity or collection of unlawful debt." (84 Stat. 943.) Subsections (a) and (b) cover investing racketeering income in, and acquiring, an enterprise, and subsection (d) makes it unlawful to conspire to violate (a), (b) or (c). Section 1963 provides a fine of not more than $25,000, imprisonment of not more than twenty years, or both, and forfeiture of interests acquired or maintained in violation of section 1962. Section 904(a) reads: "The provisions of this title shall be liberally construed to effectuate its remedial purposes."

The acronym RICO is not printed in the title; the FBI's history timeline uses it: "Congress approved the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. This law contained a section known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act or RICO." Section 1963 as enacted in 1970 was rewritten by the Comprehensive Forfeiture Act of 1984, filed separately; Russello v. United States (1983) construed the 1970 text. Section 1964 (civil remedies) was not summarized from the text read here. The text layer is OCR of the printed volume.

## Sources

- U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo), United States Statutes at Large, vol. 84: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-84/pdf/STATUTE-84-Pg922-3.pdf
- FBI, A Brief History of the FBI: Timeline: https://www.fbi.gov/history/timeline