<Li> Passed the House on October 7, 1970 (341 - 26) </Li> <Li> Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on October 15, 1970 </Li> <P> The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization . The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them in doing, closing a perceived loophole that allowed a person who instructed someone else to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because they did not actually commit the crime personally . </P> <P> RICO was enacted by section 901 (a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (Pub. L. 91--452, 84 Stat. 922, enacted October 15, 1970), and is codified at 18 U.S.C. ch. 96 as 18 U.S.C. § § 1961--1968 . G. Robert Blakey, an adviser to the United States Senate Government Operations Committee, drafted the law under the close supervision of the committee's chairman, Senator John Little McClellan . It was enacted as Title IX of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, and signed into law by Richard M. Nixon . While its original use in the 1970s was to prosecute the Mafia as well as others who were actively engaged in organized crime, its later application has been more widespread . </P>

Ricco is a federal statute that allows for
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