Chapter 13 - § 13.3 • ELEMENTS DEFINED

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 13.3 • ELEMENTS DEFINED

§ 13.3.1—A Pattern of Two or More Acts of Racketeering Activity

A "pattern of racketeering activity" requires "at least two acts of racketeering activity which are related to the conduct of the enterprise."⁹ "Racketeering activity," in turn, "occurs if one commits, attempts to commit, conspires to commit, or solicits, coerces, or intimidates another person to commit, any of the federal or Colorado crimes listed under § 18-17-103, C.R.S."¹⁰

COCCA's definition of "racketeering activity" is more expansive than its federal counterpart, RICO. In Colorado, racketeering activity includes not only acts that constitute such activity under RICO — including mail fraud and wire fraud — but also a host of other crimes under Colorado law, such as defrauding a creditor, computer fraud or crime, perjury, forgery, tampering with physical evidence, bribery, identity theft, offering a false document for recording, and violation of the Colorado Securities Act.¹¹

At least one of the acts must have occurred in Colorado, and after July 1, 1981.¹² In addition, the final act must have occurred within a ten-year period from the prior act, although periods of imprisonment are excluded from the calculation.¹³

To establish a pattern of racketeering activity, the claimant must show that at least two or more racketeering activities are "related and that they amount to, or pose a threat of, continual criminal activity."¹⁴ Courts have held that a relationship between acts exists where the acts have "the same or similar purposes, results, participants, victims, or methods of commission, or otherwise are related by distinguishing characteristics and are not isolated events."¹⁵

Furthermore, to establish open-ended or closed-ended "continuity," the claimant must establish either that (1) the action is commenced prior to the end of the racketeering activity and there is a threat of continued prohibited conduct (open-ended continuity), or (2) the underlying acts all occurred before trial over a substantial period of time (closedended continuity).¹⁶ Acts that occur over a short period of time and do not threaten future criminal conduct do not satisfy the continuity requirement.¹⁷

§ 13.3.2—An Enterprise

An "enterprise" may consist of "any individual, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, trust, or other legal entity or any chartered union, association, or group of individuals, associated in fact although not a legal entity."¹⁸ An enterprise may consist of...