Attorney Ralph Monico obtained the dismissal of ten civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (“RICO”) Act claims and related federal trade secret and computer fraud claims for two individuals and their limited liability company in a civil action filed in the United States District Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania.
Through expansive pleadings, plaintiffs alleged that defendants used a series of businesses and business relationships to engage in racketeering and organized crime. According to plaintiffs, defendants developed this scheme to defraud them and seize control of their business. Defendants argued that plaintiffs had improperly weaponized the civil claim component of RICO to cast a simple business dispute as racketeering and that regardless, plaintiffs had neither pled nor shown that they could plead predicate facts to support civil RICO claims. The District Court agreed characterizing plaintiffs’ claims as the “poster child” for concerns associated with civil RICO claims. The District Court dismissed all federal claims with prejudice, entered judgment against plaintiffs and in favor of defendants, and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state law defamation and replevin claims.