Violating racketeering anti trust laws is the act of operating an illegal business and scheming to create a monopoly in a certain sector of business. This type of crime is encompasses a very broad area including, bribery, illegal gambling, sexual exploitation of children, computer scams etc.
Racketeering and violations of anti trust laws are usually associated with organized crime. To start a racketeering scheme it usually takes more than just one person, usually a large group as in organized crime groups.
Many people, businesses and even governments can be affected by racketeering anti trust crimes. Examples of this type of crime may include counterfeiting, trading in alcohol, cigarettes. It can also include offering illegal services like drug trafficking or prostitution.
Nickels private investigations has worked on many cases where the charges are racketeering. It can also be considered a white collar crime, as when money laundering or extortion charges are brought against a subject.
In most professional investigations involving racketeering anti trust crimes a private investigator is usually hired, to find information and interview witnesses. This type of crime is complicated because the criminal organizations that engage in racketeering anti trust crimes usually have legitimate businesses too, which they use as cover for their racketeering acts.
Some racketeering acts may not come from the usual criminal sources. In fact some anti trust violations come from regular businesses. These companies may not practice racketeering on purpose, but when they try to monopolize a market or work in conjunction with another group to fix prices on a product then they are also violating antitrust laws, and practicing a kind of racketeering.
Antitrust laws have been in place since the 1890′s and they were made to protect competition in the market place and thereby keep the prices low which benefits consumers. Violations of these antitrust laws include fixing prices, allocating consumers between more than one business, which should be competing with each other, rigging contract bids, etc. This type of violation is a crime and we at Nickels private investigations see many cross our way. Fines for this type of crime can be as high as $400,000 or may even involve jail time.
