racketeer
Other forms: racketeering; racketeers; racketeered
A racketeer is a criminal, especially one who's involved in organized white collar crime or dishonest business dealings. If a lawyer embezzles money from her clients, she is a racketeer.
Racketeers commit crimes in order to make money for themselves. In many cases, a racketeer is a business owner or professional who falsifies financial records to hide income or bills clients for more than they owe. A racket is a scam or fake service that's run by a racketeer — and the crime itself, if the racketeer is caught, is called racketeering. The source of all three words is thought to be racquet, and the idea of a scam as a "game."
-
someone who commits crimes for profit (especially one who obtains money by fraud or extortion)
-
carry on illegal business activities involving crime
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing racketeer
Published in 1949, this dystopian classic imagines a future of perpetual war, militaristic propaganda, and total government surveillance.
The third and final presidential debate of this election took place on October 19, 2016 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Considering the large amount of ill will between the two campaigns, it was actually a pretty substantive debate. The audience got to hear the candidates' opinions on Supreme Court nominees, abortion, and each candidate's plan for economic growth. Here are twenty words from the third presidential debate.
In the 1940s, a Louisiana teacher confronts racial prejudice in his community as he counsels a young man on death row.