Last June, in RJR Nabisco v. European Union, a deeply divided U.S. Supreme Court resolved a three-way split among the federal courts to define the extraterritorial reach of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The court held that extraterritorial conduct generally can be prosecuted by the government as a criminal or civil RICO violation to the same extent as the underlying violations of law that form the requisite “pattern of racketeering activity.” But the court, erecting a higher hurdle for private plaintiffs, also held that the statutory provision authorizing private civil RICO claims, 18 U.S.C. § 1964(c), only provides a remedy for U.S. “domestic injuries.”

Originally published in Law360 - January 5, 2017.