Court Dismisses Turkish Exporter’s RICO Claims for Failure to Allege a Domestic Injury

In a decision announced on March 28, 2017, in Cevdet Aksüt Oğullari Koll. Sti v. Cavusoglu, Civ. No. 2:14-3362 (DNJ), the Hon. William J. Martini, U.S.D.J. applied the United States Supreme Court’s precedent in RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Cmty., 136 S. Ct. 2090 (2016) to dismiss the plaintiff’s RICO claims.  In RJR, the Supreme Court held that a private RICO plaintiff must allege and prove a domestic injury to its business or property in order for the claim to be viable under the federal racketeering or “RICO” statute.  Following RJR, and applying the reasoning of the majority of district courts that have since addressed the issue of “domestic injury,” Judge Martini dismissed the plaintiff’s RICO claims, finding that the Turkish exporter, with no business presence in the United States, could not allege a domestic injury based upon the allegations set forth in its Verified Complaint.  Peter J. Pizzi, Marc D. Haefner, Christopher J. Hemrick, and Mariel Belanger represented the successful movants before Judge Martini.

For more information regarding Walsh’s experience in RICO litigation, please contact Marc Haefner at (973) 757-1100 or [email protected].