NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL LAWYERS
Can corporations be charged with RICO
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation law firm, managed by Todd Spodek — who has over 40 years of combined experience with our legal team. You probably know us from the Netflix series about Anna Delvey, or our work on the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct case, or representing clients in cases others call unwinnable. If you’re reading this, someone’s probably told you that your corporation is facing RICO charges — or might be.
Yes, corporations can absolutely be charged under RICO. Both criminally and civilly. Despite what you might think about RICO being for mobsters and organized crime, the law doesn’t care if you’re a Fortune 500 company or a mom-and-pop pharmacy. Federal prosecutors and private plaintiffs use RICO against corporations all the time, and in 2025, those civil cases are exploding because of a Supreme Court decision that just made corporate liability much, much worse.
The Corporation as Both Enterprise and Defendant
RICO defines “enterprise” to include any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity. That means your corporation can be designated as both the enterprise and the defendant in the same indictment — playing a dual role that creates massive exposure.
The company isn’t just a passive entity that got caught up in employee misconduct. It’s the vehicle through which the racketeering activity occurred, and it profited from that activity. Federal prosecutors love this approach because it lets them go after the deep pockets while also charging the individuals who ran the scheme.
Under respondeat superior — the doctrine that makes employers liable for employee actions — a corporation faces criminal RICO liability for illegal acts of its directors, officers, employees, and agents. The scope is extremely broad. Even if the criminal conduct violated express company policy, the corporation can still be charged if the employee acted within the scope of employment and intended to benefit the organization.
Criminal vs. Civil RICO Against Corporations
Criminal RICO cases against corporations come from federal prosecutors. They’re looking for prison time for individuals, massive fines for the company, and asset forfeiture. A criminal RICO conviction for the corporation means fines up to three times the financial gain from the crimes — not less than $25,000 but often millions or billions depending on the scheme.
Civil RICO is where things get truly dangerous for corporations in 2025. Private parties can sue your company for treble damages — triple the actual losses they suffered. No prosecutors needed. Just a plaintiff’s lawyer who can allege that your corporation engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity that injured their business or property.
On April 2, 2025, the Supreme Court decided Medical Marijuana, Inc. v. Horn, and that case changed everything for corporate civil RICO exposure. The Court held that plaintiffs can now seek treble damages for business or property losses that result from personal injury. Before this decision, there was a circuit split — some courts said you couldn’t use RICO to recover economic losses stemming from personal injuries. Now you can.
What does this mean practically? A plaintiff buys your company’s product — let’s say a CBD product or a pharmaceutical or really anything. The product causes them a personal injury. They lose their job because of that injury. Under the old interpretation in some circuits, they couldn’t use RICO to recover their lost wages. Now they can, and they get triple damages, and your corporation gets hit with the “almost inevitable stigmatizing effect” of having a RICO claim asserted against it.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers are salivating over this decision. RICO filings increased almost 20% in the year ending March 31, 2024 compared to the prior year — and that was before this Supreme Court ruling. Expect that number to skyrocket.
How DOJ Actually Uses Corporate RICO Charges
DOJ doesn’t charge every corporation with RICO even when they could. The decision to indict a corporation is massive — it can destroy the company, put thousands of employees out of work, wipe out innocent shareholders.
What they look for is whether the corporation itself was the vehicle for the criminal enterprise. When a pharmaceutical company systematically pays kickbacks to doctors to prescribe its drugs, frauding patients and insurers — that’s a corporation as criminal enterprise. When a funding company like Par Funding runs a years-long RICO conspiracy involving securities fraud and tax crimes — that’s corporate RICO. The CEO got 15 and a half years in prison.
In 2025, DOJ is still using RICO against corporate defendants in cryptocurrency theft cases, healthcare fraud schemes, and financial frauds. A superseding indictment charged an enterprise with over $263 million in cryptocurrency thefts. In July 2024, a pharmacy in Queens got hit with a civil RICO suit by Allstate Insurance for a $4 million fraud scheme involving fake prescriptions and kickbacks.
These aren’t street gangs. These are businesses — pharmacies, funding companies, corporate entities — charged as RICO enterprises.
What Happens When Your Corporation Gets Charged
If federal prosecutors indict your corporation under RICO, you’re facing criminal penalties that can bankrupt the company. Fines are calculated as three times the proceeds of the criminal activity. In a multi-million dollar fraud, that’s a nine-figure fine. Plus asset forfeiture — the government seizes everything connected to the racketeering activity.
A RICO indictment destroys your reputation overnight. Clients leave. Banks cut off credit. Business partners terminate contracts. The stigma of being charged with racketeering — even if you beat the charges — never fully goes away.
That’s why corporations almost always settle if DOJ offers a reasonable deal. Deferred prosecution agreements, non-prosecution agreements, cooperation agreements — anything to avoid the formal RICO conviction. DOJ knows this leverage and uses it. In 2025, the National Security Division declined prosecution of Universities Space Research Association for federal violations, specifically noting prompt self-disclosure and cooperation. That’s the model — cooperate early, disclose everything, hope for a declination or a deal that doesn’t include a RICO charge.
Civil RICO cases are different but equally brutal. You can’t settle with DOJ to make a private plaintiff go away. These cases go to trial or settle for massive amounts because of the treble damages exposure. And unlike criminal cases where prosecutors have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, civil RICO plaintiffs only need to meet the preponderance standard — more likely than not.
Why You Need Experienced RICO Defense Now
At Spodek Law Group — we’ve handled cases that other firms said were unwinnable. Todd Spodek is a second-generation criminal defense attorney with many, many years of experience in federal white collar defense. If your corporation is facing RICO allegations, you need lawyers who understand how these prosecutions actually work.
The worst thing you can do is wait. By the time DOJ files a RICO indictment, they’ve spent months or years building the case. Your window to cooperate, to self-disclose, to negotiate a resolution short of indictment — that window closes fast.
We’re available 24/7 because federal investigations don’t happen on a 9-to-5 schedule. We’ve represented clients coast to coast, and we understand that corporations facing RICO charges need a team that can move quickly, think strategically, and fight aggressively when necessary.