The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "RICO" ...
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Surgery for sale
Following up on patients' complaints, ABC investigates fradulent practices in eye care delivery. Under investigation is the Lasik Vision Institute in Tampa, FL which advertised eye surgeries to be conducted for as low as $299. The story reveals how patients who underwent these surgeries ended up with eye infections after having never got the advertized deal - not even a meeting with a surgeon prior to the procedures.
Tags: National Chain of Lasik; Tampa; LVI; medical records; RICO violations
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Opportunity of Exploitation?
These stories deal with how a company, Maxi Staff Inc., used promises of good pay, great housing and the chance to escape poverty and high unemployment to recruit laborers for Puerto Rico to work in U.S. meat processing plants. The stories revealed how, once they were in the United States, the laborers' dreams turned to dust and they found themselves in an unfavorable economic situation. The company charged recruits for the recruits' flights to the U.S. They were put in substandard and unsanitary housing. Workers made less money than they had originally been told, often making less than $100 for a 40-hour week. Recruits who fell ill or got injured on the job were fired and evicted from their housing with 48 hours notice.
Tags: Maxi Staff Inc.; poverty; unemployment; Puerto Rican Laborers; U.S. meat processing plants; U.S. Department of Labor; Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration; Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources; Ronell Industries; Empire Kosher; Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry; Catholic Social Services; Council of Spanish Speaking Organizations; Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church; U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration Wage and Hour Division; OSHA; Puerto Rican recruits; Pennsylvania Statewide Latino Coalition
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Hotel Workers Held in IRS Sweep
This story exposes new ways that employers and big business use to get around laws to recruit and retain illegal immigrant labor. Specifically, the story focuses on the practices of National Sales and Service LLC. What sets this story apart is how it takes a thoughtful look at the lives of the workers and their family members in Mexico, and the hardships they suffer.
Tags: immigration; illegal alien; federal racketeering law; RICO; FOIA
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Gunning For Eddie
The New Times reports on the saga of former Hollywood nightclub owner Eddie Nash, who evaded prosecution for murder, arson and drug dealing. Nash walked away from a conviction in the high-profile Wonderland Avenue murder trial -- twice -- but in 1997 a former business partner admitted to involvement in bribing a jury member. At the time the article was written Nash was awaiting trial under the RICO act.
Tags: law enforcement; racketeering; RICO; bribery; Wonderland Avenue murders
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Tobacco Companies Linked To Criminal Organizations In Lucrative Cigarette Smuggling
The Center For Public Integrity explores and investigates the complicity of major cigarette companies in black market smuggling across the globe fueled by a desire for profits. Included with the articles are numerous documents, court files and transcripts which show the cigarette companies' role in these illegal operations which have been linked to gangs, organized crime and murders.
Tags: tobacco; cigarette smuggling; cigarette companies; money laundering; gangs; organized crime; RICO act; FOIA
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Marked Man
The New Times reports on the fall from grace of gangster Felix Medina. Once the head of the Eastside Los Cuatro Milpas, Medina crossed the wrong people. He lied about being a member of a prison gang after being released, which means that if he goes back to jail on the current charges he faces he's in a lot of danger. Furthermore, he snitched on his fellow gang member when he was arrested -- so if he stays out on the street his life is in danger.
Tags: gangs; RICO statutes
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Anchors Away: The Navy's Sordid History in Puerto Rico Explains a Lot About Vieques
Gonzalez, co-host of Pacific Radio's news program, Democracy Now, writes that the dispute over bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques may become President George W. Bush's first foreign policy crisis. Vieques, where the Navy has run a bombing practice range for 60 years, "is the most glaring example today of an imperial arrogance that has been part of the (U.S.) Navy since American sailors first began patrolling foreign waters in the early 19th century." In late 1999, President Clinton signed an agreement that ended live bombing on Vieques and gave a three-year transition period for the Navy to find another practice site. It also called for a complete Navy pullout by May 2003 if the Puerto Rican people called for it in a referendum. Later, on Gonzalez' radio show, Clinton reportedly said he supported giving the training site back to the people of Puerto Rico. But opposition in Congress and in the military has prevented that from happening, Gonzalaez writes.
Tags: Vieques; Puerto Rico; bombing; proving ground; U.S. Navy; Clinton foreign policy; Foxardo Affair; David Porter; Clinton-Rossello agreement
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Governor's Travels
WSMT-TV's "investigation found the governor of Tennessee and his family had taken more than 50 free flights on corporately owned jets over a three-year period. These flights include a trip to a Puerto Rico resort, a trip to a golf resort in California, vacation travel to Wyoming and frequent transportation to the governor's vacation home in Florida. Companies with large state contracts donated many of the trips. The governor also spent hours in the company of lobbyists, including one lobbyist from U.S. Tobacco and another from a nursing home chain coming under scrutiny from state regulators. None of the governor's trips were ever publicly disclosed."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; government; Tennessee; finances; expense reports
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Vieques: In Whose Defense, At What Expense
"The series explored the depth of passion and history that brought the Navy into conflict with Puerto Ricans on the island of Vieques. The story revealed the contradictions and emotional basis of both the Navy's and the anti-Navy protestors' positions. Neither the protesters nor the Navy can support their hardened positions on the facts now available.
Tags: Navy; military; weapons; testing; Puerto Rico; bombs; fishing; U.S. territory; environment
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He Says He Wants a Revolution
Boston Magazine profiles Bob Rabin, leader of anti-U.S. government demonstrations in Puerto Rico.
Tags: Puerto Rico; Vieques; Bob Rabin; U.S. Navy