The World in U.S. Courts: Winter 2018 - Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO)
October.30.2017
Bascuñán is the first decision of a court of appeals to address the requirement that a private claim under the RICO must be based on a “domestic” injury to the plaintiff’s business or property. It has two principal holdings: First, if “a civil RICO plaintiff alleges separate schemes that harmed materially distinct interests to property or business, each harm—that is to say, each ‘injury’—should be analyzed separately for purposes of [the domestic injury] inquiry.” Second, “a plaintiff who is a foreign resident may nevertheless allege a civil RICO injury that is domestic. At a minimum, when a foreign plaintiff maintains tangible property in the United States, the misappropriation of that property constitutes a domestic injury.” Our commentary on the decision was published by Law360 on November 3, 2017, and may be found here.