RICO
noun / acronym

- Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act

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WORD ORIGIN

RICO was deliberately crafted as an acronym for the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1970. However, the choice of letters wasn't coincidental.

The acronym RICO was specifically chosen to honour Rico "Little Caesar" Bandello, the fictional gangster character from the 1931 film "Little Caesar" starring Edward G. Robinson. This cinematic mobster became an iconic representation of organized crime in American popular culture.

The lawmakers' choice to reference a famous movie gangster in the act's name was both memorable and symbolically appropriate—using popular culture to fight the very criminal enterprises it depicted. This naming strategy helped the complex legislation stick in public consciousness and clearly communicated its anti-organized crime purpose.

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CORPORATE REALITY CHECK

The title “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act” can make us think of mobsters in pinstripe suits, but these days it's more likely to be cryptocurrency thieves in designer hoodies. Originally designed to take down the Mafia, RICO has become prosecutors' main instrument for taking down organized crime—whether that's old-school racketeering or modern crypto fraud worth hundreds of millions.

The logic of RICO lies in connecting dots that seem unrelated. Instead of prosecuting individual crimes separately, it allows prosecutors to show how various illegal activities form a pattern within an enterprise.

We can only hope that within a political system riddled with lies and corruption, there’s still may be legislation that makes sense.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

organized crime law, racketeering statute, anti-corruption act, federal crime law, RICO

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation today, say something like:

“Let’s hope that RICO really is able to act against corruption,… especially in a country where many people in positions of power are being paid by organized crime.”

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P L E A S E   S U P P O R T   O W A D

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Paul, Helga, & Jenny Smith

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