The federal district court for the District of North Dakota ruled that the developers of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) failed to establish claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) against Greenpeace and three individual anti-pipeline protestors. Greenpeace allegedly raised money based on false information about DAPL’s impact on the environment and Native American lands and provided funds to support DAPL protestors. One of the individual defendants was allegedly an organizer for the Red Warrior Camp, an encampment of protestors who allegedly delayed the construction of DAPL and damaged plaintiffs’ property. A second individual allegedly received training from Earth First! (which had already been dismissed from the lawsuit) and used an oxy-acetylene cutting torch to cut holes in the pipeline in Iowa. The third individual, a pipeline campaigner for Greenpeace, allegedly trained anti-pipeline protestors in Louisiana. Other named individual defendants had not been served. The court found that the plaintiffs’ allegations were insufficient to establish a RICO “enterprise” because although the defendants shared the common purpose of opposing DAPL, there was “no ongoing organization, no continuing unit, and no ascertainable structure distinct from the alleged RICO violations.” The court also pointed out problems with the amended complaint’s allegations of a pattern of racketeering activity, including shortcomings in the allegations of predicate acts of wire and mail fraud, drug trafficking, money laundering, and interstate transportation of stolen property, and the absence of allegations concerning how these alleged predicate acts caused the plaintiffs’ injury. The court dismissed the RICO claims with prejudice, declined to exercise jurisdiction over the remaining state-law claims, and denied plaintiffs’ motion for an extension of time to serve.

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) action by Dakota Action Pipeline developers against Greenpeace and other organizations.

Energy Transfer Equity, L.P. v. Greenpeace International

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

North Dakota Federal Court Dismissed RICO Claims Against DAPL Protestors

Filed

United States of America

North Dakota

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives