Legal Definitions - Pinkerton Liability

Pinkerton Liability is a legal principle that holds a member of a criminal conspiracy responsible for crimes committed by other members of that same conspiracy, even if they didn't directly participate in or even know about those specific crimes. This liability applies when the additional crimes were committed:

• As part of the overall illegal plan: The crime was related to the original unlawful agreement.
• To help achieve the conspiracy's goals: The crime was done to further the objectives of the conspiracy.
• And were reasonably foreseeable: It was a predictable or natural consequence of the illegal agreement, even if not specifically planned.

Essentially, if you agree to be part of a criminal plot, you can be held accountable for other crimes your co-conspirators commit, provided those crimes were a logical outgrowth of the original plan and done to advance it.

Examples of Pinkerton Liability:

• Drug Trafficking Operation: A group of individuals conspires to import and distribute a large quantity of illegal narcotics. One evening, during a planned drug transaction with a buyer, one member of the conspiracy, without prior discussion or agreement from the others, gets into an argument with the buyer over payment and physically assaults them, causing serious injury.

  How it illustrates Pinkerton Liability: The other members of the drug trafficking conspiracy could be held liable for the assault, even if they weren't present or didn't approve of the violence. The assault occurred during a transaction central to the conspiracy (furtherance), was related to the drug distribution (within the scope of the unlawful project), and violence is often a foreseeable risk in large-scale illegal drug dealing.

• Corporate Embezzlement Scheme: Three senior executives conspire to embezzle millions from their company by creating fake vendor invoices and diverting funds to offshore accounts. When an internal audit begins to uncover irregularities, one executive, fearing exposure, secretly deletes crucial financial records and emails from the company's servers that would incriminate all three.

  How it illustrates Pinkerton Liability: The other two executives could face charges for obstruction of justice or destruction of evidence, even if they had no knowledge of or didn't authorize the deletion of records. Destroying incriminating evidence is a foreseeable act to protect an ongoing or recently exposed embezzlement scheme and helps further the goal of avoiding detection and preserving the ill-gotten gains.

• Planned Art Heist: A team of four individuals plans an elaborate heist to steal a valuable painting from a private gallery. Their plan involves disabling security cameras and carefully removing the artwork. During the execution of the heist, one member of the team unexpectedly encounters a night watchman. To ensure their escape, this conspirator ties up the watchman and locks him in a storage closet, causing him distress and minor physical discomfort.

  How it illustrates Pinkerton Liability: The other three conspirators could be held liable for kidnapping or unlawful restraint of the watchman, even if their original plan did not include confronting or restraining anyone. Encountering security personnel and taking actions to neutralize them to ensure the success and escape from a high-stakes theft is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of such a criminal enterprise, and the act was committed in furtherance of the heist.