Law360 Quotes Parvin Moyne on DOJ Use of RICO in White-Collar Prosecutions

For its article “Mob Mentality: DOJ Wields RICO With Mixed Results,” Law360 quoted Akin white collar defense and government investigations partner Parvin Moyne. The article looks at the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) use of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, in white collar cases, including one against several JPMorgan Chase & Co. traders.

Law360 reports that, in that case, three of the four traders were acquitted of racketing and conspiracy, and the RICO charges were dropped against the fourth. RICO charges are involved, it notes, in an upcoming market manipulation case involving the founder and others at the private investment firm Archegos.

Said Moyne, “The fact that the government wasn't successful in the JPMorgan case might be a warning to them that this is a complicated statute and may overly complicate cases and not give them the benefits they thought they might get from a RICO charge.”

She added that an important difference between the JPMorgan and Archegos cases is that that latter is more clearly focused on the company as an enterprise than the former, which involved a precious metals trading desk rather than the company itself: “In JPMorgan, the enterprise was this desk with this group of traders, whereas in Archegos the organization is more cleanly defined. The Archegos case is very different from the JPMorgan case, so it will be interesting to see if the government is successful.”