Prosecute Corporate Crimes under RICO

[trashisfree]

Any company committing crimes in a repeated pattern with 2 or more people involved shall be prosecuted under RICO. This would allow lengthy prison sentences and going after personal assets. For example then CEO Scott Rick, the current governor of Florida, who's company was hit with 14 corporate felonies and the largest fines ever in Medicare fraud, would have been charged for participating in a criminal conspiracy and stripped of personal assets.

 

The current system encourages defrauding the government, mortgage fraud, securities fraud, violating whats left of the environmental laws etc. The most a company is likely to face is a fine and or toothless corporate felonies, that do not keep them from doing business as usual. Getting caught is meaningless, it effects share holders, not the criminals committing the crime.

 

If I stole 1% of Scott Rick's Medicare fraud from a bank or the government, I would be doing many years in prison. Corporations should be held equally accountable.

[Keith]

I support this

[occupyguy]

I support this too. 

 

Something else we should look into is a Writ of Qui Tam or The False Claims Act (31 U.S.C. §§ 3729–3733)   I don't have a clue how we could use the False Claims Act to our benefit, but maybe somebody does.  The False Claims Act is an absolutely awesome piece of legislation and it could make us $ if we can figure out how to use it to our benefit. 

 

In common law, a writ of qui tam is a writ whereby a private individual who assists a prosecution can receive all or part of any penalty imposed. Its name is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur, meaning "[he] who sues in this matter for the king as [well as] for himself." A more literal translation would be "who as much for [our] lord the king as for himself in this action pursues" or "follows."

The writ fell into disuse in England and Wales following the Common Informers Act 1951 but, as of 2010, remains current in the United States under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., which allows for a private individual, or "whistleblower," with knowledge of past or present fraud committed against the federal government to bring suit on its behalf. There are also qui tam provisions in 18 U.S.C. § 962 regarding arming vessels against friendly nations, 25 U.S.C. § 201 regarding violating Indian protection laws, 46a U.S.C. 723 regarding the removal of undersea treasure from the Florida coast to foreign nations, and 35 U.S.C. § 292 regarding false marking. In February 2011, the qui tam provision regarding false marking was held to be unconstitutional by a U.S. District Court,[1] and in September of that year, the enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act effectively removed qui tam remedies from § 292.[2]

 

Here is a link to the biggest prosecutions under The False Claims Act:

 

http://www.taf.org/top20.htm

[BackSeatEconomist]

Unfortunately, the Qui Tam action arising under the False Claims Act applies only to actual whistle-blowers.  The government needs to have been unaware of the fraud before you let them know.

[occupyguy]

Can anybody think of a way that would aid in the prosecution of these criminals?  I keep reminding myself that almost all crimes are documented in electronic media now-days and that we have a very large body of labor at our disposal that is willing to assist in the prosecution of these criminals.  We could create our own investigative programs and tender reports to pertinent parties, the media, etc.  Basically, we have the ability to connect the dots on a macro level and expose fraud and crime. 

 

We have enough people and state of the art technology to audit these companies or government agencies from the outside!