The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act has played an increasingly broader role in both criminal and civil business litigation since its passage in 1970. The latter part of the 1980's saw the first use of a RICO charge against an individual insider trading defendant and pretrial restraining orders against an unindicted brokerage house. In addition, RICO was amended in 1989 to add financial institution fraud to the term "racketeering activity." The Insider Trading and Securities Fraud Enforcement Act of 1988 raised criminal penalties for securities violations and made certain corporate persons expressly liable for insider trading by their employer. This act increased from 5 to 10 years the maximum sentence for a knowing criminal violation of securities laws or regulations. The act also increased the maximum criminal fine for an individual from $100,000 to $1 million. The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 dramatically increased Federal criminal law concerning bank crimes and expanded criminal and civil penalties. Book articles specifically focus on the role of RICO (forfeiture, procedural rights of third parties, drug laws, money laundering, and tax fraud); fraud in the financial marketplace (civil securities enforcement, insider trading, and bank fraud); environmental offenses; sentencing; and corporate criminal liability. 537 notes and 2 tables