NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL LAWYERS
What is enterprise in RICO cases
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, with over 40 years of combined experience handling federal criminal cases that other attorneys won’t touch. We represented Anna Delvey in the case that became a Netflix series, handled juror misconduct issues in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, and defended clients in the Alec Baldwin stalking case. If you’re reading about RICO enterprises, you’re facing serious federal charges—or trying to understand how the government builds these cases.
RICO prosecutions live or die on one question: what’s the enterprise? Without an enterprise, there’s no RICO charge—no matter how many crimes prosecutors claim you committed. The government can’t just point at criminal activity and call it RICO. They need to show an organizational structure, even if that structure is loose, informal, or temporary.
The Statutory Definition Is Broader Than You Think
18 USC 1961(4) defines enterprise as “any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or other legal entity, and any union or group of individuals associated in fact although not a legal entity.” That’s a deliberately expansive definition. Congress wanted RICO to reach both legitimate businesses engaged in criminal activity and purely criminal organizations with no legal structure whatsoever.
Legitimate corporations can be RICO enterprises. Street gangs can be RICO enterprises. Corrupt police departments can be RICO enterprises. Even a loose group of people who coordinate criminal activity without any formal organization—that’s an enterprise under the association-in-fact doctrine.
You don’t need bylaws, incorporation papers, or membership rolls. You don’t need a name or hierarchy or regular meetings. Federal prosecutors have used RICO against drug cartels, corrupt politicians rigging contracts, and street gangs with members who’ve never met but follow orders from imprisoned leaders.
In 2025, the FBI arrested multiple members of the Rancho San Pedro gang in California on RICO charges. The enterprise? A multi-generational gang with roughly 500 members split into six “cliques,” operating under orders from Mexican Mafia members locked up in state prisons. The incarcerated leaders gave orders about tax collection, drug distribution, firearm transfers, and gang positions—all from behind bars. That’s an association-in-fact enterprise. No corporate charter required.
Association-in-Fact Enterprises Are Where RICO Gets Dangerous
Most people understand that corporations can be RICO enterprises. What surprises defendants is how little structure the government needs to prove for an association-in-fact enterprise.
The Supreme Court laid out the test in Boyle v. United States in 2009—still the standard in 2025. An association-in-fact enterprise must have three structural features: a purpose, relationships among associates, and longevity sufficient to pursue the enterprise’s purpose.
That’s it. The enterprise doesn’t need hierarchical structure or chain of command—decisions can be made ad hoc. Members don’t need fixed roles; different people can perform different roles at different times. The group doesn’t need a name, regular meetings, dues, established rules, or initiation ceremonies.
Federal prosecutors can take people who committed crimes together over time and call them an enterprise. If you and four others coordinated drug sales for six months, with different people handling supply, distribution, and money at different times—that’s potentially an association-in-fact enterprise. The government will argue there was a common purpose (selling drugs), relationships among associates (you coordinated), and sufficient longevity (six months of activity).
The “continuing unit” requirement doesn’t mean constant activity. According to DOJ guidelines, nothing in RICO exempts an enterprise whose associates engage in spurts of activity punctuated by periods of inactivity. You could commit crimes together, go quiet for months, then resume—and prosecutors will argue that’s still a continuing enterprise.
What Prosecutors Actually Have to Prove
Proving an enterprise requires evidence of an ongoing organization and that associates function as a continuing unit. Prosecutors build this through wiretaps, surveillance, cooperating witnesses, and financial records.
They’ll show communication patterns—who called whom, who gave orders. They’ll show financial flows—who paid whom, who controlled money. They’ll show role differentiation—even if roles shifted, there were recognizable functions within the group. And they’ll show continuity—the group existed long enough to carry out multiple criminal acts.
The government doesn’t need to prove you knew you were part of an enterprise or understood RICO law. They just need to prove the enterprise existed and you knowingly participated in conducting its affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity.
The Enterprise and the Defendant Are Not the Same Thing
This is critical. Under 18 USC 1962(c)—the most common RICO provision—you can’t be both the enterprise and the defendant conducting the enterprise’s affairs. There must be two distinct entities.
The Supreme Court held in Cedric Kushner Promotions Ltd. v. King that a corporate employee can unlawfully conduct the affairs of a corporation he solely owns. So if you own a business and use it to commit racketeering activity, you’re the defendant and the corporation is the enterprise—even though you’re the only person involved.
If prosecutors charge you under 1962(c), they need to identify an enterprise separate from you. If they can’t maintain that distinction, the charge fails. We’ve seen cases where prosecutors had clear evidence of criminal activity but couldn’t structure a viable RICO charge because they couldn’t identify a cognizable enterprise distinct from the defendants.
Why This Matters for Your Case
If you’re facing RICO charges, the enterprise allegation is where your defense may live or die. Challenge the existence of the enterprise and the entire RICO charge collapses. Even if the government can prove you committed underlying crimes—fraud, drug trafficking, extortion—without proving an enterprise, they can’t convict you under RICO.
RICO carries enhanced penalties, including up to 20 years in federal prison and mandatory asset forfeiture. Defeating the enterprise element defeats those enhanced penalties.
Common defenses attack continuity, organizational structure, or distinctness between defendant and enterprise. Maybe the government is packaging isolated criminal acts as coordinated enterprise activity. Maybe the alleged enterprise lacked necessary structure—no real relationships, no common purpose, no longevity. Maybe prosecutors haven’t maintained the distinction between you and the enterprise.
At Spodek Law Group—we’ve spent decades handling federal cases where the government overreaches. RICO is a favorite prosecutorial tool because it’s broad and carries devastating penalties. But broad doesn’t mean unlimited. The enterprise requirement imposes real constraints.
We’ve defended clients in RICO cases ranging from organized crime to white-collar fraud. In one case, we represented a businessman accused of running a $12 million Ponzi scheme with over 40 victims. We secured a sentence of just six months despite the massive alleged fraud, in part by challenging how the government characterized the enterprise and the defendant’s role.
Federal prosecutors are aggressive—they have unlimited resources, experienced trial attorneys, and the FBI behind their investigations. But they still have to prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt, and the enterprise element is where RICO cases become vulnerable.
If you’re under investigation or already charged, time matters. The government is building its enterprise case right now through wiretaps, financial analysis, and cooperating witnesses. Waiting to retain counsel means giving prosecutors months to construct a narrative you’ll spend years trying to dismantle.
We’re available 24/7 because federal investigations don’t operate on business hours. Call us before you talk to investigators, before you try to explain your side, before you make the mistakes that turn a defensible case into a guilty plea. The enterprise element is complex—but it’s also your opening.