Shawn Hogan (Owner of DP) Is Getting Sued For Cooking Stuffing

Guess again.

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (commonly referred to as RICO Act or RICO) is a United States federal law that provides for extended penalties for criminal acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.

Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and/or sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of "racketeering activity." RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.

 

But everyone should agree tht shawn had got a bit of xtra mind

 

I have an in-depth blog about this and have been doing research and blogging about some other cookie stuffing issues. Been sitting here trying to hold my tongue about some of the comments in this thread.

Thought I'd just weigh in on 2 points.

1) Cookie stuffing is STEALING! Those here that are defending the practice - if you work hard to make money through affiliate programs you have undoubtedly been a victim of this kind of theft.

Let's say you do PPC. You PAID to get that visitor to read your ad, you spent time building the landing page and you sent that PPC visitor to the merchant. It's YOUR sale! Then the visitor leaves. Reads a forum about something totally unrelated, never clicks a link or does anything. Goes back to buy and the cookie stuffer who did NO legitimate work at all - steals your sale. You PAID for that visitor, don't you feel cheated? You should!

2) Just wanted to comment on this one too:

If you read the legal docs you'll see they are being charge under the RICO act. This is pretty serious stuff!

I'm not saying he's guilty and in my blog I'm careful to say "alleged" charges. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. However I don't think eBay would leverage this many charges over acts they say happened over a 4 year period without some proof. And I don't think they'd do it over something that was just a little gray hat.

Edited to add - Chawman - I guess I was still typing while you were posting. Glad you looked it up too!

 

links does not work

 

Ok, that logic is about as assed backwards as it gets. The fact that you can sue someone who has criminal charges filed against them does not mean in any way, shape, or form that someone who gets sued might go to jail.

It's not a criminal proceeding, it is a civil one. Period.

-Michael

 

Does anyone actually know if this occurred or not for sure? Thats pretty scary if it is.

 

Okay, this is hilarious!

 

If you read the legal docs you'll see they are being charge under the RICO act.

Reading isn't your strong suit? Criminals suck and anyone who stands up for them is just as bad.

 

There were 6 charges filed including mail fraud, wire fraud, racketeering and violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Those don't sound like civil charges to me.

 

Only the government brings criminal charges (United States vs. X, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. X, etc).

He's right, this is a civil suit, and they can only ask for monetary damages.

There can be a separate criminal suit if some level of government, like a state AG, decides to try them, but that hasn't happened yet.

IANAL, don't kill me if I'm wrong.

 

OMG, that was funny, and congrats on your 1000 post!!

 

I stand corrected. We were quoting from Wikipedia what the RICO act is and the possible penalties.
Because it was filed as: Nature of Suit: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations.
And one of the docs says: Jury Demanded By: 18:1962 Racketeering (RICO) Act

However in looking at the filing again - you are right it is a civil suit and a demand for jury trial.

 

Most criminal RICO prosecutions begin as a civil suit. The prosecutors let the civil plaintiffs pull all the evidence, at no expense to them, and then decide whether to launch a criminal prosecution.

For Shawn's sake, I hope he can settle out of this one quickly. A lot of webmasters could get caught up in this very quickly.

 

What do you mean we need to know. Obviously its true other wise I'd be slander...

 

Quite funny that one of the most corrupt businesses in the world sue others over anything, could take you to any page on ebay just now and show you fake products, how many billions is ebay allowing genuine businesses to lose each year by allowing millions of fake products to be sold each month, so if someone can pull one over on ebay and get away with it, go for it.

 

wow i read all post till hear and it is all about the owner that start this forum he is a Genius.

No other forum beat DP

 

Shawn has no right to do this, and im sure ebay doesnt go around sueing for no reason..

 

lol, they do actually, I even remember a case a few years back, person had company called perfumebay.com eBay filed a lawsuit I am sure cause there business name Perfume Bay, contained the word ebay.

 

Ebay has the right to that name

 

Hahahahaha this is so funny. The owner of one of the biggest forums and probably a millionaire turns out to be a common criminal....