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Home | BakerHostetler

BakerHostetler Team Files Amicus Brief Urging Supreme Court to Close RICO Securities Loophole Created by Eleventh Circuit

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A team of BakerHostetler attorneys, including Partners Douglas Greene and Brian Song, Counsel Bari Nadworny and Associate Renee Knudsen, filed an amicus brief on Nov. 3, 2025, at the U.S. Supreme Court in&nbsp;Citigroup, Inc. v. Ottos Candies&nbsp;(No. 25-391) on behalf of pro bono client Washington Legal Foundation (WLF).&nbsp; The brief urges the Court to review, and ultimately reverse, a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that fails to apply a provision in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (Reform Act) barring civil-RICO claims premised on alleged federal securities violations. The Eleventh Circuit reasoned the bar does not apply because the particular plaintiff did not have a viable securities fraud claim. The amicus brief argues that the Reform Act nevertheless prohibits such civil-RICO claims regardless of a particular plaintiff’s ability to sue under the federal securities laws.&nbsp;

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In support of WLF’s position, the team argued that the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling is inconsistent with the text, legislative history and judicial interpretation of the federal securities laws, including the Reform Act. Allowing civil-RICO claims based on insufficient private securities claims would have the perverse effect of allowing the weakest securities claims to be re-cast as treble-damages civil-RICO claims. If allowed to stand, the result will be a proliferation of these types of claims in the Eleventh Circuit and in circuits that have not ruled on this issue. The brief thus urges the Court to grant certiorari to reverse the Eleventh Circuit.

<a href="https://admin.bakerlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Amicus-brief-to-close-RICO-securities-loophole.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read the amicus brief here</a>.

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