the RICO act has more than on use

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Recommended: Punishment and white collar crimes

The RICO act has been very affective in halting the American Italian mafia’s strong hold in the country. It has also, been affecting those who are not considered gangsters, but have committed RICO violations in the country. Some of these people were some of the most trusted investors in the country and were able to steal or embezzle millions of dollars from citizens. Even though the full amount of money that was stolen is not usually returned to the investor, the RICO act gives the country an opportunity to imprison these violators for a very long time. Even though the RICO act was created to combat organized crime, it has been just as affective against non-mafia white collar criminals.
When people think of the RICO act they think of gangsters that have been charged for their violations. One of the most famous American gangsters that have been charged under RICO was John Gotti the head of the Gambino crime family in New York. In 2011 the FBI arrested 127 members connected with organized crime in New York, New Jersey, and New England. Most of the people arrested were either in one of the five families in New York or connected to them in some way. These are the people in America that are considered horrible criminals that should serve prison time for the crimes that they have committed. There are very few people in the United States that would voluntarily do business with the Italian mafia. This is because of the reputation of the Italian mafia committing illegal activities. This is not the case for those who are CEO’s of large companies or those who hold series 6 and series 7 licenses. These licenses allow a person to sell mutual funds and stocks respectably. These people are trusted with a person’s money and licensed by the fed...

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...y were “earning” that they continued to invest. Most never tried to cash out their earned dividends and had the profits reinvested. There were a few people that did receive their profits and it became known in Madoff’s RICO case that they were all his friends. His friends were able to profit greatly from this scheme. One of his friends Jeffry Picower was able to make $5,771,339,795 from his investments in Madoff’s company. It was well documented in the RICO case that Picower told Madoff how much return on his investment he wanted and then he got that amount. In one particular instance he was able to have over nine hundred and fifty percent returns on his investment. This is an astronomical amount for a return on a stock investment. Picower was one of many believed to have known about the scheme, but most investors did not know they were being scammed.

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