The Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1952, makes it a federal crime to travel, use the mail, or use any facility in interstate or foreign commerce for the purpose of furthering an “unlawful activity.”
At the time of its enactment in 1961, the Travel Act was originally intended to give the federal government a leg up in the fight against organized crime. An example of the sort of situation that the Travel Act was intended to target is where a crime boss resided in one state and operated an illegal enterprise in another. In such a situation, it was feared that neither state would have jurisdiction to prosecute the crime boss for operating the illegal enterprise and, in the absence of something like the Travel Act, the conduct would go unpunished.
From its origins combating organized crime, the Travel Act has since been used in a variety of other contexts, including in conjunction with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), as a predicate offense under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), and, recently, in health care corrupt payment prosecutions.
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