What is Racketeering?

Racketeering is known as the crime committed at a state level. This term might refer to the act of gaining a business operation via illegal activity, using business operations to commit any acts that are illegal or functioning a business with illegally Earned Income.

The crimes of racketeering comprise sexual exploitation of children, bribery, gambling, several fraud offences, economic and financial crimes, money laundering, obstructing criminal or justice investigation, and more.

At a state level, this activity may include kidnapping, murder, arson, gambling, robbery, extortion, drug crimes, etc.

Explaining Racketeering

Certain well-organized groups might operate illegal activities and businesses, which are called rackets. Such groups may also take funds from any legal business and use the same for illegal activities.

Basically, racketeering might take a variety of forms. If you look back in history, you may find evidence of rackets majorly operating in illegal industries, such as counterfeiting, weapon trading, drug trafficking, human trafficking and prostitution.

Recently, racketeering crime has been shifted to cyber extortion. In such a situation, a hacker might push malware to the computer of a user – all illegally – restricting the access to the computer as well as the stored data. And then, the hacker would demand money to restore the access.

In a way, racketeering might also be a type of protection racket. In this situation, a criminal might threaten to harm an individual’s or a business’s private property in case the owner doesn’t agree to pay a protection fee.

Also, if a person is detained illegally and the captors ask for a ransom, this type of kidnapping is regarded racketeering. Another popular racketeering example is known as fencing racket; wherein somebody acts as intermediaries to purchase stolen products from a burglar at low rates and resell the same for a profit to a buyer who doesn’t have any idea about the source.

Apart from individuals, even corporates may get engaged in racketeering. For example, a manufacturer of drugs might bribe the doctor to overprescribe a certain medicine; thus, dealing with fraudulent activities to increase profits.

Predatory lending is another scenario where a lender may trick a borrower in taking the loan that is hindering the ability of the taker to repay the same. Therefore, it is always recommended to take a personal loan, even if your credit is bad, to be safeguarded from unofficial, fraud loans.