United States v. Sutton

MERRITT, Circuit Judge.

This case raises issues of first impression in our court concerning the scope of the federal enterprise racketeering statute, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-68 (1976). The law was enacted as Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 and is popularly knov/n as RICO, an acronym for “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations,” the heading under which it appears in the crim*263inal code. RICO’s central aim is to prevent and punish the financial infiltration and corrupt operation, through patterns of racketeering activity, of “legitimate business operations affecting…