I'm reading that RICO is being used to shag providers, could we get a brief on just what that is and how it applies to the hobby?

money laundering, forfeiture, and all of the prostitution-related kinds of charges in the legal constellation of swords that can be used against providers and agencies.
Even a cursory explanation would take pages-and-pages, if not volumes because the answer to your question is very complex and specialized. It is big enough for a law school graduate course in so-called white collar crime. These are links to some of the recent leading cases:

http://laws.findlaw.com/9th/0010046.html (prostitution, travel)
http://laws.findlaw.com/7th/993840.html (massage, bjs, ATMs)
http://laws.findlaw.com/2nd/931892.html (money laundering)

In my own small universe of noticing things, I've researched US Court of Appeals cases nationwide on FindLaw.com for "prostitution." There have been numerous federal prosecutions of agencies, pimps, and a few providers under these federal laws in the last ten years. This is especially true when minors or drugs are in the picture. In this field, the Travel Act sort of takes the place of RICO because charges of prostitution are a part of the overall prosecution, and are specifically mentioned in the Travel Act.

There have been quite a few State mini-RICO prosecutions of agencies, most notably in Tampa Florida and Toledo Ohio of all places. I assume that California has its own mini-RICO racketeering law and others that the OC and SD gendarmes could be using right now. I'm far away in DC. We have Ashcroft to deal with, but he is very busy now searching for camel f**kers.

Under certain circumstances, RICO laws can be used to ensnare providers and agencies, no doubt about it. It just takes an ambitious prosecutor. Those come out from under rocks during election years, and here we are in such a year!

A really creative prosecutor could probably nail the Catholic Bishops with RICO for the concealment of pedophilia by priests all these years. You've got the enterprise, predicate crimes, concealment of those crimes. The asset forfeiture provisions might reach the cathedrals and churches, after which cities could remodel them into legalized bordellos for homeless ultravixens with full pouty lips. Just a thought. Pass it on! LOL.
Schlong

-- Modified on 6/18/2002 11:38:05 AM

Thanks for the info, it's a starting point for some late night reading i guess

This question is indeed a mouthful.  To make a long story even longer, A US attorney can bring a RICO charge against an agency or a provider if the provider commits two RICO predicate offenses within 10 years.  An ambitious posecutor would argue that any activity that uses: interstate travel, a credit card, pay pal, any banking services, to conduct any activity related to the hobby is committing a predicate act.

RICO is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and provides for mandatory siezure of all property related to or acquired with the proceeds of the racketeering activity.  

RICO is the big hammer that the Government used to fight OC.  Now ambitious prosecutors use RICO to go where the money is.  

Most RICO enforcement activity is currently directed in the war against drugs, or the war against terrorism.  However, nothing makes headlines in an election year like sex.  

FYI, the statutes are quoted below:

The Federal RICO statute 18 USC Sec. 1962 provides:

It shall be unlawful for any person who has received any     income derived, directly or indirectly, from a pattern of     racketeering activity or through collection of an unlawful debt in which such person has participated as a principal within the  meaning of section 2, title 18, United States Code, to use or    invest, directly or indirectly, any part of such income, or the proceeds of such income, in acquisition of any interest in, or the establishment or operation of, any enterprise which is engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce.
         (b) It shall be unlawful for any person through a pattern of racketeering activity or through collection of an unlawful debt to acquire or maintain, directly or indirectly, any interest in or control of any enterprise which is engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce.
     (c) It shall be 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.

''racketeering activity'' means (A) any act or threat       involving murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, robbery, bribery, eextortion, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in a controlled
substance or listed chemical (as defined in section 102 of the
Controlled Substances Act), which is chargeable under State law
and punishable by imprisonment for more than one year;

(B) any act which is indictable under any of the following provisions of title 18, United States Code:  section 1544 (relating to misuse of passport), section 1546 (relating to fraud and misuse of visas, permits, and other documents), sections 1581-1588 (relating to peonage and slavery), section 1957 (relating to engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity), sections 2251, 2251A, 2252, and 2260 (relating to sexual exploitation of children), sections 2421-24 (relating to white slave traffic),

(F) any act which is indictable under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 274 (relating to bringing in and harboring certain aliens), section 277 (relating to aiding or assisting certain aliens to enter the United States), or section 278 (relating to importation of alien for immoral purpose) if the act indictable under such section of such Act was committed for the purpose of financial gain.

''pattern of racketeering activity'' requires at least two acts of racketeering activity, one of which occurred after the effective date of this chapter and the last of which occurred within ten years

multiple state RICO charges in Tampa, Florida. Alarming. Two links given. Co-defendant owned adult porn star escort agency.
Lesson: Do not run a big operation in a place where state or federal authorities are arch conservative.
The agency element, whatever it was, may have been decisive, as are the upcoming elections. One link is the arrest report detailing the charges. FYI.
The Sheriff may be running the TBD boards now and monitoring traffic, so maybe not a good idea to visit site.

The Sheriff's Office in Tampa issued a press release on the case, including names of all eleven defendants and nine apparent providers. (Link below). Hard to tell who was who with the real names.
There is a Melanie. Some others look familiar to readers of Tampa sites.
Orlando's Sheriff was conducting a similar operation, over a two year period.
LE created an escort agency, advertised on TBD, took in some money, and arrested some hobbyists to help make the sting.
This will be an interesting First Amendment case, but the charges of course include as much conduct as the Sheriff could come up with beyond speech and press.
TBD has posted no warnings on his boards, but LE may have his servers and be running the show as we speak.

http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/Press_Releases/Press_Releases/2002/02-270.htm

I surfed a few of the boards this afternoon. Posts about the arrest have been disappearing from the TBD boards almost (but not quite) as fast as they're posted.

Posters should obviously be careful, however the AP article on the bust has an interesting quote from the detectives on the case:

"Detectives said there was nothing illegal about the discussions, and in order to arrest anyone they had to catch either the escorts or their customers in the act of committing prostitution. That was difficult."

Let's be careful out there ...

-- Modified on 6/19/2002 3:46:14 AM