What Is Racketeering? One of the Charges 'Diddy' Combs Faced

Time​ Magazine

02-07-2025

Though rapper and music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs has been found guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution, he was acquitted of more serious charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. The racketeering charge proved the most difficult for the jury to agree on: By Tuesday afternoon, it had reportedly reached a verdict on all the other charges, but said jurors had 'unpersuadable opinions on both sides" regarding the racketeering conspiracy count. They only reached a decision the following morning, after the judge told them to continue deliberating.
Combs, 55, faces up to 20 years in prison. But if convicted on the charge of racketeering and the two charges of sex trafficking, he could have confronted a much longer sentence—potentially life behind bars.
Here is what you need to know about the charge that gave the jury in Combs's trial the most trouble.
What is racketeering?
Racketeering comprises various illegal activities that multiple people engage in to earn a commercial profit, possibly under the guise of conducting legitimate business, according to Cornell Law School. It does not refer to one specific crime, but several different crimes that fall under the same federal law: the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.
RICO was passed in an effort to combat organized crime, at a time when the mafia's disconnected structure and disparate and seemingly uncorrelated crimes made conviction of high-ranking leaders difficult.
For someone to be convicted of RICO charges, the Justice Department says, a pattern of crimes must be proven that includes at least two instances of racketeering committed within a ten-year period and as part of a long-term association with an 'enterprise' formed to carry out criminal activities.
Prosecutors must also prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was aware of the criminal enterprise and intended to participate.
Racketeering conspiracy, which Combs was charged with, is a charge alleging that at least two people conspired to violate the RICO statute.
According to David Shapiro, lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, racketeering charges require a lot of 'investigative and prosecutorial resources,' which is why they are not used very often.
'It's one of those things that requires a great deal of effort, expenses, experts, witnesses, to comb through transactions over 10 plus years, trying to link them together and demonstrate the existence of a corrupt organization controlling and directing these predicate crimes,' Shapiro tells TIME.
Lorraine Gauli-Rufo, an attorney at LGR Law in New Jersey who has dealt with multiple racketeering charges, speculated on why the jury in Combs's trial may have come to the decision it did.
'We think that [the jury] probably found him as a sole individual, not an enterprise—not a group that existed with a common purpose. And if that was the case, that would explain why they didn't find [Combs] guilty on the RICO count,' Gauli-Rufi told TIME.
What are some examples of racketeering?
A number of different offenses can amount to racketeering if they're part of a pattern, including drug trafficking, sex trafficking, money laundering, and extortion.
In the cases of high-profile mafia members like John Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime family, RICO charges have been used in their most classic form—to deal with the mob. Gotti was convicted of multiple counts of racketeering in 1992.
RICO charges have similarly been levied in more recent organized crime prosecutions, including in a case involving members of the MS-13 Gang that resulted in three defendants pleading guilty earlier this year.
Racketeering has also been used as a charge in several high-profile federal cases to prosecute men accused of sexual abuse. In addition to Combs, the R&B singer R. Kelly also faced the charge, in relation to 14 connected accusations including the sexual exploitation of children, sex trafficking, and forced labor. Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Racketeering was also notably used in the indictments against nine Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) officials and several other corporate executives, which alleged systemic bribery spanning a 24-year period going back to 1991.
In each of these cases, prosecutors worked to prove long-standing and premeditated criminal acts that were connected, yet disparate, as part of the RICO charges.
How long can you be in prison for RICO charges?
RICO charges carry a maximum criminal penalty of 20 years in prison for each count a defendant is convicted on, according to Cornell Law.