R. Kelly Says RICO Indictment Alleges an Enterprise of One
R. Kelly took a swing Friday at the top count of his federal indictment, accusing the government of trying to push sexual assault allegations that are too old to prosecute.
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racketeering
Airplane Defects
A class of individuals who claim they were overcharged when they purchased airplane tickets may pursue two RICO claims against Boeing and Southwest Airlines, a federal court in Texas ruled. The case stems from defects in Boeing’s 737 MAX 8, which allegedly caused the crashes of a Lion Air flight in 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in 302.
Read moreBaseball Cards
A collector claims in a superior court RICO class action that Collector’s Universe dba Professionals Sports Authenticator knowingly upgrades altered baseball cards to jack up their prices on the market.
Read moreCurves
Eighteen franchisees filed a federal RICO complaint against Curves International, claiming it provided “misleading and fraudulent franchise disclosure documents” to disguise the company’s tottering financial condition.
Read moreConsumer Class Action
A federal RICO class action claims that Green Pogo, Natural Beauty Line, Vegan Beauty, et al., conspired in a scam to use fake celebrity endorsements to trick consumers into signing up for “free trials” for cosmetics, then billing them for services and subscriptions they never signed up for.
Read moreRed Light RICO
A federal RICO class action claims that Safespeed and its agents, the City of Oakbrook Terrace, and public officials in Northern Illinois conspired to “corruptly use[] red-light cameras” to “generate millions of dollars in revenue … and thereafter used bribes to protect the money machine from calls for legislation” to ban red-light cameras.
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Rapper Whose Gang Admissions Went Viral Sentenced to Prison
A federal judge gave Tekashi 6ix9ine a two-year sentence Wednesday for his involvement with the Brooklyn set of the Bloods gang whose members the gangster rapper spent days on the stand fingering as a government cooperator.
Read moreThird Circuit Revives RICO Claims Against Diabetes Drug Maker
GlaxoSmithKline must defend itself against racketeering and consumer fraud claims that it falsely marketed its diabetes drug Avandia as reducing heart problems when the drug actually increased the risk of heart attack, the Third Circuit ruled Tuesday.
Read moreDrug Risks
The Ninth Circuit ruled that a putative class of patients and third-party payers of health and welfare benefits have satisfied RICO’s proximate cause requirement in their suit claiming pharmaceutical companies refused to inform the public that the drug Actos increased a patient’s risk of bladder cancer.
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GM Sues Fiat Chrysler Over Bribery of Union Officials
General Motors brought a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Fiat Chrysler, claiming the rival automaker bribed officials with the United Auto Workers union to get an unfair advantage in labor agreements.
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Pet Store Chain Urges Panel to Reject Suit Over Sick Animals
Attorneys for one of the country’s largest pet store chains asked an 11th Circuit panel Wednesday to reject a class action claiming the company knowingly sells sick dogs and cats to customers at inflated prices.
Read moreJury Finds Abortion Foes Harmed Planned Parenthood, Awards Over $2 Million
A federal jury found an anti-abortion cohort led by David Daleiden caused substantial harm to Planned Parenthood by infiltrating abortion industry conferences to secretly tape abortion doctors and staff, and awarded punitive damages of $870,000.
Read moreSides Trade Barbs as Civil Case Against Abortion Foes Winds Up
Closing arguments began Tuesday in Planned Parenthood’s civil fraud and racketeering case against a cohort of anti-abortion activists with attorneys for both sides impugning the other’s motives and leveling accusations of deceit.
Read moreFirst Circuit Poised to Deflate Verdict on Meningitis Outbreak
The owner of the drug company convicted in a 2012 nationwide meningitis outbreak pushed the First Circuit for a reversal Tuesday by accusing the prosecution of having prejudiced the jury with “gruesome, grisly and emotional” testimony about victim suffering.
Read moreAnti-Abortion Foe Grilled on Motives for Secretly Videotaping Doctors
A Planned Parenthood lawyer Thursday tried to discredit anti-abortion activist David Daleiden’s motives for secretly videotaping abortion doctors and releasing the videos on the 15th day of a civil fraud and conspiracy trial.
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Actress Accuses Weinstein & His Attorneys of Racketeering
Actress Rose McGowan filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday claiming that Harvey Weinstein and two of his former attorneys, including well-known David Boies, engaged in racketeering to silence her and derail her career before she accused him of rape.
Read moreSchools Sue Juul
The Tucson Unified School District accuses JUUL Labs of racketeering, public nuisance, gross negligence, unjust enrichment and product liability in federal court, saying that it targets students with false advertising, disproportionately affecting schools, which have to counter its deceptive marketing.
Read moreAbortion Foe Walks Back Testimony on Conference Security
The defense in a racketeering and fraud case against anti-abortion activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt hit a snag Tuesday when Planned Parenthood attorneys refuted Merritt’s testimony about inadequate security at an abortion industry conference where she and Daleiden secretly recorded Planned Parenthood doctors.
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