Racketeering Laws

NRS 207.390 – Overview of Nevada Racketeering Laws

Racketeering refers to using business to cause a problem so that you can fix the problem for a set price. The statute prohibiting racketeering in Nevada can be found in Section 207.390 of the Nevada Revised Statutes.

Racketeering is often a charge levied against alleged criminals and people associated with organized crime. Racketeering often arises with gambling operations, prostitution rings, money laundering, or selling drugs. At other times, though, it pointed at ordinary, everyday people that don’t have any bad karma coming at all. Some examples of racketeering include:

• Kidnapping – Many kidnappers demand a ransom.
• Drug dealing – Addicts must come back time and time again to get their “fix” or else they will go through horrible withdrawals.
• Bribery – “If you don’t give me X-amount of money, I’ll tell the world that you did X.”
• Ransom-ware – This is a malware that hackers put on a victim’s computer that takes control of it. Then the criminal demands ransom to give access to the computer and its data back to the victim.
• Protection rackets – A gang will say they’ll hurt someone’s personal property or business unless they pay for their protection.
• Number racket – This is a type of illegal gambling played in mostly poor neighborhoods.
• Fencing racket – This is when a person or business buys stolen items from thieves and then sells these stolen items to innocent buyers.
• Fraud on the insurance companies – The drug manufacturers will sometimes try to boost their profits by attempting to bribe various doctors to overprescribe medications
• Robbery These are only a few. The person committing the racketeering doesn’t even have to be committing these crimes to be racketeering. Merely threatening to do any of the above or several others that are not listed is enough.

What is Racketeering Activity?

To be involved in “racketeering activity,” you have to be engaging in two or more racketeering-related crimes, and these crimes must:

• End with similar results;
• Be found on the same intents;
• Follow the same patterns;
• Target the same victims;
• Utilize similar accomplices;
• Use similar methods of commission; or
• Have distinguishing characteristics that make them interrelated.

They must not be isolated incidents.

Also, one racketeering crime must have been committed after July 1, 1983, and the next must-have happened within five years from the first for it to be considered a racketeering activity.

What Happens If You Are Convicted of Racketeering?

It’s not just the person committing the racketeering that gets in legal trouble. You can get into trouble with the law if you:

• Are doing the racketeering;
• Are aiding and abetting those doing the racketeering;
• Furnish advice;
• Furnish finances; or
• Conspire to or attempt to conspire to help in the racketeering in any way.

If you are caught doing any of the above, or of course, transporting goods, racketeering, doing the finances, or anything of the sort, you’ll be guilty of a category B felony. In such a case, you’ll go to the state prison for anywhere between five and twenty years. You may also be fined up to $25,000.

What Happens to the Money Seized by Law Enforcement for Racketeering?

The funds the criminal has accumulated in his racketeering career go into the Attorney General’s Fund. Any balance that the criminal has accumulated over $50,000 in his “racketeering fund” gets deposited into the State General Fund.

The money that was added to the Attorney General’s Fund will then be used to pay for the investigation and criminal prosecution or civil action, whichever applies. The fund is, then, therefor other agencies in the state to draw from to pursue those involved in racketeering activity.

When others use the funds, they must reimburse the Attorney General’s (Racketeering) “Account” with the money they obtain through their own racketeering “chase” adventures. Each such agency must give the Attorney General’s (Racketeering) “Account” 10% of the amount they confiscate.

What Happens to the Victims?

Any person that’s victimized as a result of racketeering activities can demand that they get a trial before a jury to bring a civil action against the criminal. The victim can then get back three times the amount of the damages they sustained. They can also  recover – within reasonable limitations:

• Money spent on their attorney;
• Money spent during the investigation; and
• Money spent in the process of taking legal action.

An injured person has more of a claim to the property that is forfeited or the money that comes from the investigations than the state does.