Izzo's files civil RICO charges against Baton Rouge's least favorite grocery chain

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Izzo’s files civil RICO charges against Rouses in lawsuit over burrito recipe, trade practices

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Izzo’s Illegal Burrito and its parent company have upped the ante in their long-running lawsuit against the owners of Rouses Supermarkets.

In court documents filed Oct. 27, the Baton Rouge-based restaurant chain alleges the south Louisiana supermarket chain committed conspiracy under the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, Act.

RICO cases are serious business, and have brought down mafia dons, corrupt government officials and Major League Baseball teams, and the RICO statute isn’t typically used in disputes between two businesses. But in its recent court filing, Izzo’s alleges Rouses engaged in the kind of corruption and racketeering that constitute a RICO action.

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Izzo’s RICO argument, according to its lawsuit, is threefold:

1. Rouses, in 2011, allegedly tried to bribe an Izzo’s restaurant manager into going to work for Rouses so the supermarket could steal his Izzo’s recipe book and establish burrito bars, similar to Izzo’s, in their stores.
2. Rouses conspired to keep Izzo’s out of shopping center developments—specifically Juban Crossing—where Rouses was an anchor tenant. The suit claims Rouses’ executives told leasing agents for Juban Crossing in phone calls that Izzo’s “sold ‘substandard’ products and was ‘litigious’” —allegedly, an act of wire fraud—in an effort to keep Izzo’s out of the Denham Springs retail development.
3. Rouses allegedly continues to use Izzo’s trademark recipes at its own burrito bars.

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