Known as ''sokaiya'' in Japanese, corporate
racketeers specialize in extorting companies by gaining access to shareholders' meetings by purchasing a minimum amount of shares.
Pegler for instance carefully linked Scalise to a well known Brooklyn
racketeer, Frank Yale.
According to the settlement, the former executives paid about 200 million yen to the corporate
racketeer from 1990 to 1999.
Operating under the bingo licenses of local charities,
racketeers were generating millions of dollars a year in cash.
The three became aware of a transfer of ownership of Seibu Railway shares held by a real estate company to the
racketeer, Ryuga Haga, 74, in December 2000 and became worried he might cause trouble at shareholders' meetings, the sources said.
Ogawa continued his activities as a sokaiya
racketeer even after his arrest in 1993 for extorting money from Kirin Brewery Co.
executives, in connection with giving benefits worth 88 million yen to a ''sokaiya'' corporate
racketeer and his associates in violation of the Commercial Code, police said.
Phillip Morris et al, accusing the Defendants of 50 years of conspiring and committing fraud under the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO") section of the United States Code.
Lead defendant Rafael Yepiz and eight other alleged members or associates of the Sun Valley-based gang face charges from a 78-count federal indictment that includes violations under the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, narcotics trafficking, firearms and money laundering.
Eight Nippon Shinpan officials were arrested Saturday on suspicion of giving cash to a ''sokaiya''
racketeer for three years from late 1999 in exchange for the
racketeer allowing the firm's general shareholders' meetings to proceed smoothly.
NOW argued that Joseph Scheidler of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League and three other prominent activists had violated the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) by encouraging anti-abortion protests.
Lead defendant Rafael Yepiz and eight others face some 40 charges from a 78-count federal indictment that included violations under the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, narcotics trafficking, firearms and money laundering.
