From Singer to Crime Boss? Prosecutors Accuse R. Kelly of Running a Sex-Abuse ‘Racket’

A new Chicago criminal case against singer R. Kelly turns on whether he operated a mafia-style “criminal enterprise” to abuse and enslave girls, produce child pornography and satisfy his personal sexual urges, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Under the racketeering statute commonly referred to as Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which was designed to combat organized crime, prosecution and civil penalties for racketeering activity performed as part of an ongoing criminal enterprise can occur. Racketeering activities can include bribery, kidnapping and slavery.

Legal experts say that charging Kelly under RICO is uncharted territory, as this law was originally designed to go after mafia bosses who shielded themselves by using underlings to do their dirty work.

While Kelly may not be a traditional mafia boss, Jeff Grell, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School and an expert in RICO law says “Here, R. Kelly is the Godfather.”

“The enterprise is the managers, the bodyguards and runners who do his bidding.”

Legal experts believe this charge can be a powerful weapon against the singer, as prosecutors can give jurors a 30,000-foot view of the singers alleged crime behavior, both in longevity and the number of victims involved.

“It’s an effective tool for prosecutors because it allows them to bring in evidence, they might not otherwise be able to bring in, to give jurors a much broader look at the playing field,” said Jeffrey Cramer, a former federal prosecutor who is now senior managing director of the Chicago-based security firm Guidepost Solutions.

To prove the racketeering charge, prosecutors are planning to put evidence that goes back 30 years to show that as his career blossomed, so did his enterprise which allegedly used a mix of co-conspirators to recruit girls for Kelly and help keep them under his control.

While the case against Kelly is just the most recent example of federal prosecutors in New York’s Brooklyn office using the RICO law, it may be a legal stretch to charge Kelly under a law that was meant to go after organized crime.

In 2019, Keith Raniere, the founder and leader of the cult NXIVM, was convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn was charged with racketeering and racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking ad sex trafficking conspiracy; forced labor conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy, reports Justice.gov.

The racketeering offense also included predicate acts of extortion, identify theft, and production and possession of child pornography.

According to Justice Department website, Raniere maintained command and control over his DOS members by collecting “collateral” from them, such as sexually explicit photos and letters. Also, DOS slaves were branded with Raniere’s initials.

He and his co-conspirators also worked to support Raniere and protect NXIVM form perceived enemies.

In other cases of using RICO, there have been Civil RICO cases filed against the Catholic church in cases of conspiracy silence and cover-ups regarding sex crimes against children, with mixed success, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

This is due to the fact that RICO’s specific list of crimes that can be cited as “predicate offenses,” mostly crimes that serve to enrich the organization, the kinds of crimes that are the business of criminal organizations.

Child abuse, which has been among the long list of accusations against the singer, isn’t on the list.

While Raniere’s charges sound similar to what Kelly is being accused of, NXIVM was a sex cult that has a concrete organizational structure reporting to Raniere, says the Chicago Tribune.

Kelly’s enterprise appears to be far looser.

Randy D. Gordon, executive professor at Texas A&M University School of Law who has extensively studied RICO says, “We’re not even talking about a traditional prostitution ring, though this is sort of within that space of sex trafficking.”

Due to Kelly’s enterprise being much looser than that of Raniere or the Catholic Church, Gordon says he could argue that his alleged enterprises “is too amorphous and ill-defined,” though believing that the government has the better argument on whether the alleged enterprise is just a discussed allegation that Kelly is the enterprise.

Furthermore, attorney Steven Greenberg, wrote in a motion that “Robert Kelly is not an enterprise. RICO was not designed as a means to punish a single individual for his own wrongful actions.”

While this may cause difficulty in proving that the singer is “the Godfather” of his enterprise, G. Robert Blakey, who helped draft the RICO statute, said a case like Kelly’s was not quite what was pictured when writing the law, but over the years, the statute has proven to be extraordinarily flexible.

Blakey, who is now a professor emeritus at Notre Dame’s law school, says to prove their case, prosecutors will have to show that this enterprise when beyond just Kelly himself.

“… Can you identify roles in the group that was around Kelly, and did it have reasonable longevity? It’s got to be more than a weekend; it’s got to be years.”

Gabriela Felitto is a TCR Justice Reporting intern.