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Firm Profile

RICO

The following summaries are of recent published decisions of the California appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. The summaries are presented without regard to whether Severson & Werson represented a party in the case.

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Global Master Int’l Group, Inc. v. Esmond Natural, Inc. (9th Cir. 2023) 2023 WL 5181577

Under Yegiazaryan v. Smagin (2023) 143 S.Ct. 1900, the proper test for whether a plaintiff sufficiently alleges a domestic injury to sustain a RICO claim is whether the circumstances, including the nature of the alleged injury, the racketeering activity that directly caused it, and the injurious aims and effects of that activity, show that the injury arose in the US. … Read More

Yegiazaryan v. Smagin, Nos. 22-381, 22-383, 2023 U.S. LEXIS 2635 (June 22, 2023)

While RICO does not apply extra-territorially, in deciding whether the complaint alleges a domestic injury sufficient to invoke RICO, the court must engage in a fact- or allegation-specific inquiry to determine whether the plaintiff's injury arose in the United States, even if the plaintiff is not a US-resident.  Here, the complaint adequately alleged injury arising fom US-based conduct in hiding… Read More

Shulman v. Kaplan, 58 F.4th 404 (9th Cir. 2023)

A plaintiff claiming loss or damage to its cannabis business cannot bring a federal RICO suit against the defendant causing that damage.  Though legal under California law, a cannabis business is illegal under federal law and so cannot be recognized as "business or property" injury to which might confer statutory standing t sue for a RICO violation. Read More

Smagin v. Yegiazaryan, No. 21-55537, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 16014 (9th Cir. June 10, 2022)

Plaintiff, a Russian citizen residing in Russia, obtained an arbitration award against defendant, a Russian citizen residing in California.  Plaintiff domesticated the arbitration award, securing a judgment against defendant in a federal district court in California so that plaintiff could execute on defendant's California assets.  Thereafter, defendant engaged in a series of complex domestic and foreign efforts to shelter his… Read More