Cite as: 503 U. S. 258 (1992)
Opinion of the Court
RICO,7 and whether Holmes could be held responsible for the actions of his co-conspirators. We granted the petition on the former issue alone, 499 U. S. 974 (1991), and now reverse.8
II
A
RICO's provision for civil actions reads that
"[a]ny person injured in his business or property by reason of a violation of section 1962 of this chapter may sue therefor in any appropriate United States district court and shall recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney's fee." 18 U. S. C. § 1964(c).
This language can, of course, be read to mean that a plaintiff is injured "by reason of" a RICO violation, and therefore may recover, simply on showing that the defendant violated § 1962,9 the plaintiff was injured, and the defendant's viola-7 The petition phrased the question as follows: "Whether a party which was neither a purchaser nor a seller of securities, and for that reason lacked standing to sue under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, is free of that limitation on standing when presenting essentially the same claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ('RICO')." Pet. for Cert. i.
8 Holmes does not contest the trustees' right to sue under § 1964(c), and they took no part in the proceedings before this Court after we granted certiorari on the first question alone.
9 Section 1962 lists "Prohibited activities." Before this Court, SIPC invokes only subsections (c) and (d). See Brief for Respondent 15, and n. 58. Subsection (c) makes it "unlawful for any person . . . associated with any enterprise . . . to . . . participate . . . in the conduct of such enterprise's affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity . . . ." Insofar as it is relevant here, subsection (d) makes it unlawful to conspire to violate subsection (c). The RICO statute defines "pattern of racketeering activity" as "requir[ing] at least two acts of racketeering activity[,] . . . the last of which occurred within ten years . . . after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity." § 1961(5). The predicate offenses here at issue are listed in 18 U. S. C. §§ 1961(1)(B) and (D) (1988 ed., Supp. II), which
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