A Filipino foreign national could proceed with federal RICO claims against a husband and wife couple who allegedly trafficked her into the United States and forced her to work for them for 19 years, the federal district court in Milwaukee has ruled. According to the woman, the couple devised a scheme to lure her out of her country, confine her to their Wisconsin home, extract forced labor from her, defraud her of proper earnings, and prevent her escape. The woman also alleged that the couple promised to send substantial sums of money to her parents in the Philippines, but failed to do so. Because the plaintiff sufficiently asserted a viable civil RICO claim, the defendants' motion to dismiss was denied.

Predicate Acts

The plaintiff sufficiently alleged the predicate acts of human trafficking, harboring, extracting forced labor, and mail and wire fraud. Her complaint included allegations that the couple caused information to be transmitted to the Philippines (in order to trick her into forced labor), confiscated her passport after she entered the United States, confined her to their home for 19 years, used the wires to open and close a bank account for her, diverted her letters from the U.S. mail, forced her to send financial information to her parents, and used mail and wire communications to further their exploitation of her. This was sufficient to allege mail and wire fraud, the court determined. Allegations of harboring and extracting forced labor were supported by the fact that a jury in a criminal trial had convicted the couple of harboring the woman and extracting forced labor from her.

Pattern of Racketeering

A pattern of racketeering was sufficiently alleged, according to the court. Allegations that the plaintiff suffered a series of distinct injuries caused by related predicate acts that occurred over a period of 19 years were more than sufficient to satisfy RICO’s continuity requirement.

Enterprise

The plaintiff sufficiently alleged that the husband and wife participated in the affairs of an association-in-fact enterprise, the court concluded. Among other things, the woman stated that: (1) the purpose of the enterprise was to obtain, maintain, and conceal her involuntary labor; (2) the couple cooperated with each other in conducting the enterprise and directing their children to further the enterprise’s activities; and (3) the enterprise held her captive and forced her to work over a period of nineteen years. The woman thus alleged the three structural features (purpose, relationships, and longevity) that were required to identify an association-in-fact enterprise.

Conspiracy

Allegations that the couple colluded with their adult children to harbor the plaintiff and subject her to forced labor were sufficient to allege a RICO conspiracy. The plaintiff alleged that the children assisted their parents in harboring her in the parents’ home, concealing her presence there, extracting forced labor from her, and restricting her access to the outside world. This was sufficient to allow an inference of an agreement among the defendants to violate RICO, in the court's view.

Wisconsin's Organized Crime Control Act

The plaintiff sufficiently alleged that the husband and wife and their adult children violated Wisconsin’s Organized Crime Control Act (WOCCA), the court held. The woman alleged that the parent defendants engaged in related predicate acts—including battery, false imprisonment, and fraud over a substantial period of time—that were committed within seven years of each other. She also alleged that the children were “lower-rung members” of the association-in-fact enterprise and knowingly implemented their parents’ decisions. Although her allegations regarding the childrens’ predicate acts were “bare bones,” she alleged enough to assert a plausible WOCCA claim.

Martinez, ED Wis., ¶11,730.