There were a number of atrocious acts which reportedly occurred wire-taps (wire fraud), bribery, arguable attempts to influence government, and who knows what else: if one could prove that they represented a pattern of bad behavior formulated to achieve some nefarious end whether it be toward a political, monetary, or some other goal then, according to the Supreme Court, they could, potentially, face a RICO charge.

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Goldman is finding this out, in an embarrassing way, this week with tapes of former board member, Rajat Gupta, being heard on FBI wire taps at the Raj Rajaratnam (Galleon) insider-trading trial.

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The case involves several elements that make it one that much of the legal and business world will be paying attention to including hedge funds, high-profile names like Goldman, Lloyd Blankfein and Berkshire Hathaway, wire taps and secretly recorded conversations, a billionaire hedge fund manager, a whistleblower and the rapidly rising prosecutor, Preet Bharara the United States attorney in Manhattan.

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