SAN FRANCISCO — The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act is usually in the purview of federal prosecutors seeking to take down organized crime syndicates or drug cartels.

But in a federal RICO lawsuit filed Monday in the Northern District of California, lawyers at Block & Leviton claim a group of seven retailers, including Walmart Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch, participated in a scheme to extort accused shoplifters into paying to take an online course aimed at scaring them out of future theft. The suit claims the companies partnered with the Corrective Education Co. in Utah.

Their “Restorative Justice” program came under scrutiny from a superior court judge in San Francisco last year, who found its practices were “textbook extortion.”

Monday's complaint claims the alleged shakedown was somewhat formulaic: Retailers' internal security personnel would detain suspected thieves, run a search for outstanding warrants on them, and then force them to choose between having the stores notify authorities or sign an admission of guilt and enroll in CEC's course. The complaint, which also names individual CEC executives and board members as defendants, claims suspected shoplifters had to fork over between $400 and $600 and complete the six-to-eight-hour course or face potential criminal consequences.

The suit seeks to certify a class of all people who have made payments to CEC through the program over the past four years and seeks treble damages, injunctive relief, attorney fees and “any other available remedies pursuant to RICO.”

Ragan Dickens, the director of national media relations for Walmart, said in an email that the company “began evaluating this program last year and ultimately suspended it last December.”

“We deny the allegations made against us and plan to defend ourselves,” Dickens said.

Representatives of the other retailer defendants—Abercrombie & Fitch, DSW, Burlington Coat Factory, Bloomingdale's, Kroger and Sportsman's Warehouse—didn't immediately respond to messages Monday, nor did representatives of CEC or Decathlon Capital Partners, an investment firm also named in the complaint which helped fund CEC's web-based education platform.

Reached by phone Monday, Jason Leviton of Block & Leviton said that CEC itself wasn't named in the RICO complaint because “it's just not how the statute works.”

“They are 'the enterprise' to the best of our knowledge,” he said.

The three named plaintiffs in the complaint, who filed anonymously, all were directed to CEC by Walmart. Jane Doe of Loganville, Georgia, alleges she was scooped up and accused of shoplifting hot dog buns and a case of water, Mary Moe of Hilliard, Florida, was accused of taking hygiene products and snacks, and John Roe of Houston was accused of shoplifting a “tri-ball hitch.” Doe and Moe claim they paid $500 and $400 to CEC, respectively, while Roe claims his CEC “account' was recently sent to collections.

“Allowing lawless companies to extort hundreds of dollars out of people before they are able to speak to a lawyer or speak to a parent or speak to a friend is simply unjust,” Leviton said.

“Business is business. I understand that. But at the same time, you can't take people at their lowest point and extort them,” he said.

The private lawsuit comes nearly two-and-a-half years after San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued CEC, claiming the company's practices amounted to extortion and false imprisonment. In that case, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn found in August 2017 that CEC's program ran afoul of California's extortion laws.

“This is textbook extortion under California law, and has been so declared for at least 125 years,” Kahn wrote.

Howard Golds, of Best Best & Krieger in Riverside, represents CEC in the state court action, according to the docket. He didn't immediately respond to an email message Monday afternoon.