The indictment of Rod Blagojevich and his associates includes one RICO conspiracy count. From the DOJ’s press release:
The RICO conspiracy count alleges that Blagojevich personally, the Office of the Governor of Illinois and Friends of Blagojevich were associated and, together, constituted the “Blagojevich Enterprise,” whose primary purpose was to exercise and preserve power over Illinois government for the financial and political benefit of Blagojevich, both directly and through Friends of Blagojevich, and for the financial benefit of his family members and associates. Blagojevich and Kelly, the only RICO conspiracy defendants, allegedly conspired with Monk, Cellini, Harris, Robert Blagojevich, Rezko and previously convicted cooperating defendant Stuart Levine, to conduct the Blagojevich Enterprise through a pattern of multiple acts of mail and wire fraud, extortion, attempted extortion and extortion conspiracy, and state bribery.
What’s the significance of RICO? In a nutshell, it’s a particularly powerful (some might say, punitive) tool, which carries strong asset forfeiture provisions and serious jail time under sentencing guidelines. Fitzgerald successfully convicted former Illinois Gov. George Ryan on RICO charges.
So there’s no good news here for Blago.
