MURDOCH BOMBSHELL---DOJ looking at RICO Statutes

Well-sourced information coming out of the Department of Justice and the FBI suggests a debate is going on that could result in the recently launched investigations of News Corp. falling under the RICO statutes.

RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, establishes a way to prosecute the leaders of organizations—and strike at the organizations themselves—for crimes company leaders may not have directly committed, but which were otherwise countenanced by the organization. Any two of a series of crimes that can be proven to have occurred within a 10-year period by members of the organization can establish a pattern of racketeering and result in draconian remedies. In 1990, following the indictment of Michael Milken for insider trading, Drexel Burnham Lambert, the firm that employed him, collapsed in the face of a RICO investigation.

Among the areas that the FBI is said to be looking at in its investigation of News Corp. are charges that one of its subsidiaries, News America Marketing, illegally hacked the computer system of a competitor, Floorgraphics, and then, using the information it had gleaned, tried to extort it into selling out to News Corp.; allegations that relationships the New York Post has maintained with New York City police officers may have involved exchanges of favors and possibly money for information; and accusations that Fox chief Roger Ailes sought to have an executive in the company, the book publisher Judith Regan, lie to investigators about details of her relationship with New York police commissioner Bernie Kerik in order to protect the political interests of Rudy Giuliani, then a presidential prospect.



http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-bad-news-corp-133928?page=1
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/08/1004563/-FALL-OF-THE-HOUSE-OF-MURDOCH-XVI:-BREAKING:-DOJ-looking-at-RICO-Statutes?via=siderec

................

UPDATE:
News Corp to Hold Crisis Conference in LA
By Matthew Fleischer on August 8, 2011 10:01 AM
News Corp’s board of directors is meeting in Los Angeles tomorrow to hold a crisis conference–its first since the News of the World scandal broke and the company finds itself potentially facing a slew of criminal charges.
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/news-corp-to-hold-crisis-conference-in-la_b35425

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

oh wait, I didn't get anything....

Until it happens, I just can't get excited about it.

Look at the thousands of elite banksters, etc.., running free, further destroying our world. I do not have much faith in the DOJ.

but maybe I can see his empire torn to shreds before I o.

...but how knowledgeable is he about the prosecution side?? :hide:

That's legitimate criticism. And it's dressed nicely in humor.

You wouldn't know flamebait if... well, you get the idea.

"Do not say that you are hitting the alert link to report another member. You are permitted to tell someone that you are adding them to your ignore list, provided that you actually do so."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/forums/rules_detailed.html

I'm doing neither. It's way more fun to let people's history speak for itself.

I am SUCH an optimist.

Until then, I presume that anyone looking at RICO statutes is only passing the time. If Murdoch or his media outlets in the United States ever get the first whiff of a prosecution coming for them, they will billboard the screaming "The government is censoring us!!!11!!" coverage wall-to-wall. And we have had plenty of experience in how well the Obama administration stands up to yammering from the Repressive Right.

And text in your resignation?

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

book em, Dana!

"Any two of a series of crimes that can be proven to have occurred within a 10-year period by members of the organization can establish a pattern of racketeering and result in draconian remedies.
. . . .

"There is the inexplicable story of Richard Johnson, the Post’s Page Six editor who admitted to taking payoffs from sources that wanted favorable coverage. He has continued to thrive in the company. There’s the executive at News America Marketing, Paul Carlucci, who despite the apparent and costly illegalities that occurred under his management, was promoted within News Corp. And there’s Bill O’Reilly: well-documented charges of sexual harassment have not in the least dimmed his career at Fox News.

. . . .

In London, there have now been 10 arrests. While British law does not provide for the kind of U.S.-style plea bargaining that can easily flip a co-conspirator, there is, ever-more apparently, no where else to turn. There will be no News International safe haven in terms of cash or comfort. While the company continues to pay legal fees, and, in the case of Rebekah Brooks, apparently continues to keep her on the payroll (despite representations otherwise), this is a last gasp of the company’s ability to buy dedication. There are too many questions now. In other words, the value of loyalty is fast running out. In the end, it will be a human drama, as all scandals are, about lives and careers upended and the necessity to save yourself.

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-bad-news-corp-133928?page=3

'In the end, it will be a human drama, as all scandals are, about lives and careers upended and the necessity to save yourself.'

I am still shocked that this is happening. It's not as if they have not been caught doing unsavory things before.

I wonder whose toes Murdoch might have stepped on. It would have to have been someone, very, very powerful, because just a Prime Minister would not have been able to do it. I believe there is way more to this development, than we know at this point.

on the other hand, looking into what the previous stolen administration perpetrated, would give me greater joy!

"Domino effect" seems to be my phrase of the day.

:hi:

:hug:

:thumbsup:

It was in the papers for a year before people noticed it and realized it was a big deal.

Yay, Hugh Grant! :applause: for "bugging the buggers".

Who knows what iceberg this may be the tip of?

It sounds like Giuliani may be involved. If so, who knows where that could lead?

It's more that we're afraid the prosecution will be lackluster and the whole mess quietly swept under a rug. At least that's my concern.

it eventually me a relationship way back when I was 17-18-years-old! I was transfixed by the hearings and watched whenever I could (I was working so it was spotty) and read about them voraciously. It turned out he was a ReTHUG moron.....it still took me a few months after Nixon's resignation to break up with him. Hey, I was really young! I should have learned then that I needed to screen prospective suiters by a liberalness factor.


:rofl:

When you dig far enough the oil gushes forth

:kick:

funny it seemed like the comedic stuff... like Martha Mitchell was the stuff that set the hook on watergate.. and the hearings i watched like others watched soap operas at the time..not sure how that would play out on cable these days..

of Fox News and affiliates.

:patriot:

How wonderful....RICO & Murdoch....music to my ears.

said that the government wouldn't do anything!<SARCASM>

Unless the investigation leads to vigorously prosecuted indictments, it's still just expensive kabuki theater to me.

:D

I'll believe it when I see it though.

:fingerscrossed:

preeze?

Now how do I wipe this smirk - oops I meant smile- off my face?

;-)

good as seeing the Rover perp walk.

:evilgrin:

as such.

- I'd say Rupert takes a 34M and Roger will likely need a 44XL......

How about an orange hair shirt?

could be used, but from my experience it almost never is.

was to go after people in 'Ongoing criminal conspiracies.'
I will believe it when it happens. I think you could set up RICO offices in Texas to go after Bush & Company.

Which is what News Corp was doing with impunity.

SQUIRM YOU WORMS!

K&R

:kick:

Otherwise, this should be good news.

That's why Obama didn't fire them :rofl:

Holder has made it perfectly clear...good ol' boys are safe and sound here in the good ol' banana republic of the U.S. The only prosecutions I see coming down the road, are in England where there is still some integrity in the legal system. But you can count on those medical maryjane stores that soothe the sick and dying can count on the full weight of the law. Cus those cause a threat to the mighty pharma cartels for whom our legal and law enforcement system works.

:popcorn:

...but seeing US Marshals tossing a urine-soaked Murdoch in the back of a paddy wagon is fun, too.

For instance, if you can prove that fraud and conspiracy were involved?

Yeah, right!
Holder and his boss will never follow through.

in high level white collar crimes does not currently work in our favor (ie. for justice).

I would like to see charges brought, but I think in this political climate just about anything can be
defeated with enough money and clout behind it. It's a corrupt system.

:bounce: :party: :bounce: :applause:

traitors caught in a coup.

in our country since it began. Let's hope it gets flushed out.

is my favorite cause of action. This is a significant outlook.

DOJ doing something?

But...he's too nice to confront his enemies.

the man needs cover and an angry opposition has done that for him to a degree. Fox has been useful to the Dem leadership as they bash everything liberal... you'll never see a Turd Way Dem defend liberals or liberalism... in fact, they join in the bashing.

course their loyal sycophants would insist it's all a liberal conspiracy intended to infringe on their freedom of speech.

This is the same administration that will fire good people because they are afraid of what Glenn Beck might say.

that I'm sure are paid handsomely for 'inside' info on a variety of people and 'scandals' (even to the point of just making them up out of pretty much thin air - but who cares as long as they make beaucoup moolah on it).

.. .even though it is good news.

I read DU because it usually does NOT show me histronic teaser headlines. This thread is an exception. Is it a bombshell when Fox News says something nasty about Obama? Is it a bombshell when Scott Walker says something dumb about Unions? Is it a bombshell when a Kleagle says something racist?

Well, it's not a bombshell when the DoJ looks at News Corp and then looks at RICO statutes.

Are you aware that there isn't one new spec of news in this story? RMaddow reported most of it a month ago. Other sources have already reported the RICO angle.

sc

We quit holding rich, powerful scumbags accountable decades ago!!! LOL!!!