Federal RICO Corruption Appellate Law Firm
Have you been excessively convicted or given an unfair trial? Did the trial court misapply the federal rules of criminal or civil procedure? Was your sentence unconstitutional or illegal? Is there newly discovered evidence that exonerates you? If your answer is ‘yes’ to any of the above questions then you need to call us immediately so that we can initiate the federal appeal process. At Brownstone we are focused on RICO and Racketeering appeals and changes in the laws. Our RICO appellate lawyers have successfully represented hundreds of appeals at the state and federal courts, offering consulting services on issues regarding the appeals process and procedure.
Contact our criminal appeal lawyers for conspiracy appeals to review your case 1-888-233-8895.
Our federal RICO appellate lawyers have been practicing law for several years and they are therefore well conversant with the rules of criminal procedure. This means that as soon as you call us, they get down to business and prepare the best briefs and writs. They are comfortable spending hours giving verbal arguments at the appellate courts with the sole aim of ensuring that our clients win. Click here to return to the main federal appeals page. RICO is another name for organized crime as classified by the FBI.
If you are still at the pretrial or trial stage, and you believe that you want to retain our law office to handle your appeal in the event that you lose at trial, it is often best to have us consult with your trial attorney prior to, and during trial in order to make sure that all issues are spotted, raised at trial, and preserved for appeal.
RICO Appellate Lawyers
If you have already been convicted, it is very important that you file your Notice of Appeal within the required time period. If you have not yet filed, speak with your trial attorney about doing so or contact our office immediately. The U.S. Department of Justice issues a definition of what types of activities are RICO conspiracy.
If you are interested in retaining the services of our law firm contact us right away. Our RICO appellate lawyers will review the information and respond within one business day.
Connect with Robert Sirianni to review your federal crime appeals at (888) 233-8895.
RICO Convictions Appeals
CCE and RICO related federal charges are extremely stiff penalties and you may end up paying huge fines and even be sentenced to life imprisonment if you are convicted of these charges. Continue Criminal Enterprise appeals take place in federal appellate courts. Knowing the complexity and seriousness of such charges, the Law Firm of Brownstone have skilled attorneys who can represent your interests in court. Our prime responsibility is to do everything possible to make sure you receive justice through fair treatment under the law.
18 U.S.C. § 1961: What is the RICO Act
The acronym RICO stands for The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The congress enacted this federal law to focus on and serve criminals who engage in organized crime and in an ongoing pattern of racketeering activity. The history of the RICO Act goes back to times of Mafia activity, wherein the Act was primarily used to prosecute illegal activities ranging from murder and extortion to tax fraud schemes and stock manipulation schemes. In today’s times, it is aimed at investigating white-collar criminal activities that may take place in different settings such as business organizations, corporations, and political groups. The wide range of illegal activities targeted by the RICO Act include gambling, murder, kidnap, extortion, arson, robbery, drug trafficking, fraud, and copyright infringement. Looking at the cases under RICO Act so far, it is evident that the Act has mainly covered cases of mail and wire fraud. Not only do criminals who performed illegal activities get charged under the Act, but the leaders of organized crimes are also charged and tried with the same criminal acts that they ordered others to perform.
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Who can be charged with a RICO Violation?
Under the RICO Act, anyone even remotely involved in an organized crime can be charged, ranging from an individual person to an enterprise, such as a partnership, corporation, association, union, legal entity, or individuals associated in fact. The act is powerful enough to press charges against many different forms of criminals no matter how powerful they are. For this reason,, some of the most commonly found RICO defendants belong to the population of CEOs running a corporation, controlling shareholder of a corporation, trustee, or the leader figure of a political group.
How are CCE and RICO different
CCE stands for the Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute and is commonly referred to as CCE Statute or The Kingpin Statute. Similar to the RICO Act, it is a United States federal law that targets illegal activities, but mainly focuses on large-scale drug traffickers who are involved in long-term and elaborate drug conspiracies. Both of them are complex federal laws that are put in place to fight against organized crime and punish both, leaders of organized crime as well as the actual people who perform illegal activities. Although similar and often interchanged with one another in a legal setting, they do have a varied scope. The CCE statute specifically focuses on “large-scale drug trafficking operations consisting of 5 or more people, providing harsh sentences for convicted leaders or supervisors of these operations.” The RICO act, on the other hand, is more broader in nature as it targets a wider range of illegal activities that are related to racketeering such as murder, extortion, illegal gambling, embezzlement, drug trafficking among others. The RICO Act also serves the purpose of helping serve sentence/punishment to both leaders of criminal organizations as well as people who were assigned to commit a criminal activity.
As highlighted earlier, both CCE and RICO are federal laws that help hold leaders of organized crime accountable for their wrongful actions. However, it is being increasingly noticed that the RICO Act is more efficient due to its broader reach of identifying and trying leaders of other organizations in which ongoing criminal patterns have been detected, including Major League Baseball and even the Catholic Church.
Racketeering Activity explained
As per 18 U.S.C. §1961, racketeering activity is comprised of an elaborate list of thirty-five criminal acts. These acts cover a wide range of illegal activities that a person may be charged against. To name a few off the list, racketeering activity includes criminal acts such as: “gambling, murder, kidnap, extortion, arson, robbery, bribery, drug trafficking, counterfeiting, theft, embezzlement, fraud, obstruction of justice, slavery, money laundering, commission of murder-for-hire, bankruptcy fraud or securities fraud, criminal copyright infringement, aiding or assisting aliens in illegally entering the country for financial gain, and acts of terrorism.”
What do charges under the RICO Act entail?
A racketeering charge may apply to you if you have committed at least two acts of racketeering activity as explained above within the past 10 years. The penalties that follow a racketeering charge are intense and you could be charged with heavy fines (up to $25,000) if you are found guilty under the RICO Act and a prison sentence for up to 20 years. Additionally, even if one of the racketeering activities you were convicted for is legally punishable by life imprisonment, you are likely to be subjected to the same. Read more about how the federal prosecutors file federal crime charges: Federal Department of Justice RICO manual. Furthermore, it is not uncommon for the court to have you legally surrender any gains or business interests that you may have acquired through engaging in the racketeering activity, if you are found guilty.
Talking about other legal consequences, once you are charged under the RICO Act, the government can issue a pre-trial restraining order or injunction against you, according to which your assets may be seized by the government and you would then be required to put forth a performance bond. A performance bond affirms that the accused has assets to seize, and that the accused will pay if found guilty. In addition to this, it is possible that a RICO federal charge forces a defendant to plead guilty to lesser charges.
How to appeal a RICO Act Indictment?
The RICO Act targets a wide range of illegal activities that were previously listed as racketeering acts. It primarily aims at holding organized crime leaders and the actual criminals accountable for their crimes and is the driving force behind prosecution of many racketeering activities in recent times.
A 10 year period sets the stage for an indictment under the RICO Act and the prosecution must prove that you have committed at least two acts of racketeering activity within that time frame. It is also important to note that “the second racketeering act must have occurred within 10 years of the first racketeering act.” The 10-year period excludes periods of imprisonment and only focuses on actual criminal acts conducted or organized. Further, it is imperative that the acts are somehow related in nature – they may either share similar purposes, results, participants, victims, or methods of commission.
Along with heavy charges and penalties that entail a RICO indictment, filing a federal criminal appeal for a RICO Act violation can be a complex process to understand and maneuver through for a layman. This is primarily because RICO Act indictments often involve defendants who have pleaded guilty to lesser charges and had their assets seized. With such harsh punishments like expensive fines, seizure of assets and a potential lifetime of imprisonment, it becomes absolutely important that you consult with a skilled professional such as federal RICO defense appeal lawyers who will lay out your best options and help you make an informed decision. Attorneys at our firm prefer to keep an open forum of communication with clients so that they can feel supported and engaged in the process of filing an otherwise tiresome and complicated federal criminal appeal.
The process of a federal criminal appeal
With extensive training in the field, our federal RICO appeals lawyers are admitted into all Federal Circuit Courts throughout the United States as well as the United States Supreme Court. Their expert advice and professionalism have helped several clients in difficult federal criminal conviction appeals, especially the RICO Act conviction appeals, given their complex and intimidating nature. RICO Act conviction appeals must not be handled by an unskilled professional because they generally have strict deadlines and precise procedural rules with which one must comply with at all costs. Our federal RICO appeals lawyers have years of experience in dealing with different RICO conviction appeals and thus provide top notch service in the field.
The process begins with filing of the Notice of Appeal within 30 days of your sentencing, which becomes easier and efficient under the guidance of a conviction appeal specialist (trained attorney). The next step then involves thorough analysis and evaluation of facts and decision of the trial by our federal criminal appeals lawyers. This step is important as it helps them navigate through the sentencing of court records for legal errors. Once appealable issues are identified by our federal RICO defense appeal lawyers, they then proceed to develop well-organized and well-reasoned arguments. These arguments are channeled through a concise and persuasive appellate brief, which is filed with and submitted to the Circuit Court of Appeals. A RICO Act conviction appeal is not a simple task, but our federal RICO defense appeal lawyers have the expertise and skills it takes to win a federal criminal appeal.
Defense Against RICO and CCE Charges
The RICO and CCE are both laws that target a large number of illegal activities, thereby making the trial and penalties for violation of these laws very severe and impactful for organized crime leaders and actual criminals. “RICO provides for up to 20 years in prison per count; CCE mandates a minimum of 20 years per count, up to life imprisonment, along with fines up to $2 million.”
Given the heavy financial and life-long consequences that entail a CCE and RICO charge, it is a matter of serious concern to defend yourself against such charges in an effective manner. To help relieve you of such daunting charges, our firm is equipped with criminal racketeering appeal lawyers who are well informed about the boundaries of these laws. They are also knowledgeable about what different turns the case may take and what may and may not be considered as evidence. To ensure high quality service, our federal RICO appeals lawyers will investigate all aspects of your case and keeping your best interest in mind, they will advise you of your rights and most effective ways of dealing with the charges (including, if applicable, plea bargains). They make sure to leave no stone unturned in reviewing each case thoroughly and do not hesitate to put in some extra effort on their behalf to defend your case with full strength in court.
CCE and RICO charges could have grave consequences including substantial fines, a lengthy prison sentence along with the unnecessary loss of time from the trial. The criminal racketeering appeal lawyers at the Brownstone Law firm understand that it is one of the worst moments of your life. Our federal RICO appeals lawyers are devoted and determined to their craft, identify and represent appealable issues in the most assertive and persuasive manner possible to the country’s circuit courts or if required to the Supreme Court of the United States. So as to bring the odds in your favor and to increase your chances at winning the RICO conviction appeal.
Call now at 1-888-233-8895 or fill in the contact form for a free consultation with our attorneys at Brownstone.
