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Case file

1970-10-15

U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo), United States Statutes at Large, vol. 84

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

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."

Date
1970-10-15
Kind
case-file
Source
U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo), United States Statutes at Large, vol. 84
Retrieved
2026-10-12
Docket
84 Stat. 941-948 (Pub. L. 91-452, Title IX, secs. 901-904)
Rights
An Act of Congress, a federal work in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. The text was read from the Statutes at Large PDF published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office on govinfo.

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.

itemOrganized Crime Control Act of 1970: 84 Stat. 922-962 (Public Law 91-452), 15 October 1970"An Act Relating to the control of organized crime in the United States", with titles on special grand juries, witness immunity, recalcitrant witnesses, protected housing for government witnesses, syndicated gambling, racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO), dangerous special offenders and explosives.itemUnited States v. Turkette, 452 U.S. 576 (1981)Supreme Court decision of June 17, 1981 holding that the RICO term "enterprise" covers both legitimate and illegitimate enterprises, so a wholly criminal association in fact can be a RICO enterprise.itemRussello v. United States, 464 U.S. 16 (1983)Supreme Court decision of November 1, 1983 holding that the "interests" subject to forfeiture under the 1970 text of RICO's section 1963(a)(1) include profits and proceeds of racketeering, not only interests in an enterprise.itemSedima, S.P.R.L. v. Imrex Co., 473 U.S. 479 (1985)Supreme Court decision of July 1, 1985 holding that a private civil RICO plaintiff need not show a prior criminal conviction or a separate "racketeering injury"; "RICO is to be read broadly."itemH.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co., 492 U.S. 229 (1989)Supreme Court decision of June 26, 1989 holding that a RICO "pattern" requires related predicate acts that amount to or pose a threat of continued criminal activity, and that the pattern element is not limited to organized crime.itemSalinas v. United States, 522 U.S. 52 (1997)Supreme Court decision of December 2, 1997 holding that a defendant may be convicted of RICO conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. 1962(d) without himself committing or agreeing to commit the two predicate acts a substantive violation requires.itemComprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (Title II of Public Law 98-473), with Chapter III, the Comprehensive Forfeiture Act of 1984, 98 Stat. 1976, 2040Title II of the 1984 continuing-appropriations resolution, which may be cited as the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984. Its Chapter III rewrote RICO's forfeiture section to reach property constituting or derived from racketeering proceeds.itemUnited States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1989)Second Circuit opinion on the appeal from the Southern District of New York trial of Anthony Salerno and seven other defendants, decided January 31, 1989.itemU.S. Attorney, N.D. Illinois: Family Secrets indictment release (April 25, 2005)Press release of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois announcing a 14-defendant racketeering indictment that named the "Chicago Outfit" as the RICO enterprise and charged 18 murders and one attempted murder between 1970 and 1986.