Conspiracy of the Hobbs Act Extortion in the United States

In May, 2016, the United States Supreme Court decided on whether a public official could be convicted of conspiring to commit Hobbs Act extortion where the extortion victims were also co-conspirators. The Court in Ocasio v. United States reviewed a kickback scheme between a police officer and the car repair shop's owners who provided money to the police officer in return for every referral of damaged cars at car accidents' scene to the repair shop by the police officer. The main issue presented in this case is whether a public official can be convicted of conspiring to commit Hobbs Act extortion under color of official right when the property obtained is from his conspirators. In this 5-3 decision, the majority viewed that a person who paid his property to the extortionist public official can be a co-conspirator and be included within the conspiracy. Thus, when the extortionist public official extorts property from his co-conspirator, the public official can be charged with extortion as well as extortion conspiracy. This paper analyzes the Supreme Court’s Ocasio decision by reviewing the laws of conspiracy and extortion under the United States federal statutes. The rules of conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion drawn by the Court in Ocasio give some lessons on how to interpret the law of extortion in terms of bribery aspect, and on how to apply the law in case of conspiracy between extortionist public officials and private individuals who claim themselves as “victims,” not co-conspirators although they conspire and participate voluntarily in their kickback scheme for their potential benefits or interests. The main purpose of this paper is to share the lesson from this case in dealing with those who try to circumvent laws of conspiracy and extortion by denying any wrong-doings even though they participate in bribery dealings as extortionists and victims.