Animal Rights Extremists Charged With RICO and Conspiracy

Feld Entertainment, Inc., which produces Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey(R), today filed a lawsuit against the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and a number of other animal rights organizations charging them with conspiracy and numerous violations of the Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

The RICO lawsuit is a direct result of the discovery of more than one hundred thousand dollars in regular payments to Tom Rider, a plaintiff in litigation filed by various animal rights groups against Feld Entertainment in 2000. The lawsuit alleges that Rider, a former Feld Entertainment employee, and the other activist defendants engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity consisting in part of payments to Rider through an organization controlled by the activist defendants' lawyers. The lawsuit alleges that under RICO, these payments constituted bribes and illegal gratuity payments. The lawsuit further alleges that the defendants took actions to conceal their conduct.

Feld Entertainment's lawsuit sets forth the alleged facts in detail. In addition to the claim that Rider is a "paid plaintiff," the lawsuit alleges that the defendants committed various illegal acts, including bribery, obstruction of justice, wire fraud and mail fraud, making them all subject to the federal RICO statute.

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