Re: It's not RICO
Oooh. Charles Stross takes one on the chin in that one.
Well, he's not a lawyer either, and he does write a good novel. (Plus, if memory serves, back in the day he was entertainingly grumpy on rec.arts.books.sf.)
I am also not in any way a lawyer, but a quick check of 18 USC 1962 leaves me wondering which RICO provision of unlawful conduct Turpin's lawyers think Truglia et alia engaged in. Maybe they can call the SIM fraud a case of interstate commerce (I have no idea what case law might say about that), and maybe SIM fraud could be construed as "racketeering activity" under 18 USC 1028 (relating to "identification documents") or 1029 ("access devices"), or one of the zillion other sections that can be used to claim racketeering.
But AIUI, that's just the start of what a plaintiff has to demonstrate to get a judge to even let a RICO civil case proceed.