JAMES C. HILL, Circuit Judge:
We granted rehearing en banc in this case to decide whether the term “interest” as used in 18 U.S.C. § 1963(a)(1), the crimi[953]*953nal forfeiture provision of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968,1 includes income or profits derived from a pattern of racketeering activity. Specifically at issue in this case is the forfeitability of insurance proceeds obtained through the conduct of an arson ring. The district court resolved this question of statutory construction in the government’s favor. On appeal a panel of this court reversed the monetary forfeiture orders.2 We now affirm the decision reached by the trial court.
I
The facts surrounding the indictment, prosecution, and conviction of the various defendants are set out in detail in the panel opinion, 648 F.2d at 378-80, 409-11 app. Briefly, the evidence showed that a group of individuals associated for the purpose of committing arson with the intent to defraud insurance companies. This association in fact enterprise,3 composed of an insurance adjuster, homeowners, promoters, investors, and arsonists, operated to destroy at least eighteen residential and commercial properties in Tampa and Miami, Florida between July 1973 and April 1976. The panel summarized the ring’s operations as follows:
At first the arsonists only burned buildings already owned by those associated with the ring. Following a burning, the building owner filed an inflated proof of loss statement and collected the insurance proceeds from which his co-conspirators were paid. Later, ring members bought buildings suitable for burning, secured insurance in excess of value and, after a burning, made claims for the loss and divided the proceeds.
Id. at 380. These activities formed the basis for an indictment charging twenty-three defendants with mail fraud,4 conspiring to violate RICO,5 and substantive RICO violations.6 Following a jury trial sixteen defendants were found guilty and sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment.7 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 31(e),8 the forfeiture question was then submitted to the jury for its special verdict on the extent of the interest or property subject to forfeiture. The jury ordered four defendants to forfeit monies received as insurance payments upon the successful burning of their properties: Paul Guarino— $4,000.00; Sam C. Martino — $2,500.00;9 Rolando G. Rodriguez — $4,266.83; and Joseph C. Russello — $340,043.69. Concluding that § 1963(a)(1) was intended to reach only interests in an enterprise and not the profits or income from racketeering activity, the panel reversed these monetary forfeitures. 648 F.2d at 409.10
[954]*954II
A
Resolution of this issue of statutory construction must begin with an analysis of the language of the statute itself. Bread Political Action Committee v. Federal Election Commission, - U.S. -, -, 102 S.Ct. 1235, 1237, 71 L.Ed.2d 432 (1982) (quoting Dawson Chemical Co. v. Rohm & Haas Co., 448 U.S. 176, 187, 100 S.Ct. 2601, 2608, 65 L.Ed.2d 696 (1980)). In the absence of “a clearly expressed legislative intention to the contrary,” the plain language of the statute controls its construction. - U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. at 1238 (quoting Consumer Product Safety Comm’n v. GTE Sylvania, 447 U.S. 102, 108, 100 S.Ct. 2051, 2056, 64 L.Ed.2d 766 (1980)). Under 18 U.S.C. § 1963(a), a defendant who
violates any provision of section 1962 . .. shall forfeit to the United States (1) any interest he has acquired or maintained in violation of section 1962, and (2) any interests in, security of, claim against, or property or contractual right of any kind affording a source of influence over, any enterprise which he has established, operated, controlled, conducted, or participated in the conduct of, in violation of section 1962.
On its face, § 1963(a)(1) does not limit for-feitable interests to those in an enterprise. Rather, the statute speaks broadly of “any interest” which is the product of violating RICO’s prohibitory provision, section 1962. Significantly, § 1963(a)(2) expressly limits forfeitable interests to those in an enterprise. Guiding our efforts at statutory construction in the past has been the presumption that “where Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, ... Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion.” United States v. Wong Kim Bo, 472 F.2d 720, 722 (5th Cir. 1972).11 Hence the limitation in § 1963(a)(2), and the absence of limitation in § 1963(a)(1), confirm what the straightforward language of the latter already tells us: that § 1963(a)(1) reaches any interest derived from a violation of § 1962.
No definition of the term “interest” appears in RICO. We must assume “that the legislative purpose is expressed by the ordinary meaning of the words used.” Richards v. United States, 369 U.S. 1, 9, 82 S.Ct. 585, 7 L.Ed.2d 492 (1962). The common or dictionary definition of the term includes “right, title, or legal share in something; participation in advantage, profit, and responsibility.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1178 (1971). It has also been defined as “[t]he most general term that can be employed to denote a right, claim, title, or legal share in something.” Black’s Law Dictionary 729 (5th ed. 1979). The concept is therefore broad enough to include profits or income. Indeed, this understanding comports with the House Report’s definition of “interest” as inclusive of “all property and interests, as broadly described, which are related to the violations.” H.R.Rep.No.1549, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 57, reprinted in [1970] U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 4007.
Not only is the concept of profits or proceeds within the plain meaning of “interest,” but the proceeds in question in this case were “acquired ... in violation of section 1962,” as § 1963(a)(1) requires. The insurance proceeds were the product of the defendants’ violation of § 1962(e). That section makes it unlawful for “any person .. . associated with any enterprise ... to conduct or participate ... in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity .... ” In this case, members of the arson ring conducted the affairs of that enterprise through the racketeering offenses of arson and mail fraud.
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JAMES C. HILL, Circuit Judge:
We granted rehearing en banc in this case to decide whether the term “interest” as used in 18 U.S.C. § 1963(a)(1), the crimi[953]*953nal forfeiture provision of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968,1 includes income or profits derived from a pattern of racketeering activity. Specifically at issue in this case is the forfeitability of insurance proceeds obtained through the conduct of an arson ring. The district court resolved this question of statutory construction in the government’s favor. On appeal a panel of this court reversed the monetary forfeiture orders.2 We now affirm the decision reached by the trial court.
I
The facts surrounding the indictment, prosecution, and conviction of the various defendants are set out in detail in the panel opinion, 648 F.2d at 378-80, 409-11 app. Briefly, the evidence showed that a group of individuals associated for the purpose of committing arson with the intent to defraud insurance companies. This association in fact enterprise,3 composed of an insurance adjuster, homeowners, promoters, investors, and arsonists, operated to destroy at least eighteen residential and commercial properties in Tampa and Miami, Florida between July 1973 and April 1976. The panel summarized the ring’s operations as follows:
At first the arsonists only burned buildings already owned by those associated with the ring. Following a burning, the building owner filed an inflated proof of loss statement and collected the insurance proceeds from which his co-conspirators were paid. Later, ring members bought buildings suitable for burning, secured insurance in excess of value and, after a burning, made claims for the loss and divided the proceeds.
Id. at 380. These activities formed the basis for an indictment charging twenty-three defendants with mail fraud,4 conspiring to violate RICO,5 and substantive RICO violations.6 Following a jury trial sixteen defendants were found guilty and sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment.7 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 31(e),8 the forfeiture question was then submitted to the jury for its special verdict on the extent of the interest or property subject to forfeiture. The jury ordered four defendants to forfeit monies received as insurance payments upon the successful burning of their properties: Paul Guarino— $4,000.00; Sam C. Martino — $2,500.00;9 Rolando G. Rodriguez — $4,266.83; and Joseph C. Russello — $340,043.69. Concluding that § 1963(a)(1) was intended to reach only interests in an enterprise and not the profits or income from racketeering activity, the panel reversed these monetary forfeitures. 648 F.2d at 409.10
[954]*954II
A
Resolution of this issue of statutory construction must begin with an analysis of the language of the statute itself. Bread Political Action Committee v. Federal Election Commission, - U.S. -, -, 102 S.Ct. 1235, 1237, 71 L.Ed.2d 432 (1982) (quoting Dawson Chemical Co. v. Rohm & Haas Co., 448 U.S. 176, 187, 100 S.Ct. 2601, 2608, 65 L.Ed.2d 696 (1980)). In the absence of “a clearly expressed legislative intention to the contrary,” the plain language of the statute controls its construction. - U.S. -, 102 S.Ct. at 1238 (quoting Consumer Product Safety Comm’n v. GTE Sylvania, 447 U.S. 102, 108, 100 S.Ct. 2051, 2056, 64 L.Ed.2d 766 (1980)). Under 18 U.S.C. § 1963(a), a defendant who
violates any provision of section 1962 . .. shall forfeit to the United States (1) any interest he has acquired or maintained in violation of section 1962, and (2) any interests in, security of, claim against, or property or contractual right of any kind affording a source of influence over, any enterprise which he has established, operated, controlled, conducted, or participated in the conduct of, in violation of section 1962.
On its face, § 1963(a)(1) does not limit for-feitable interests to those in an enterprise. Rather, the statute speaks broadly of “any interest” which is the product of violating RICO’s prohibitory provision, section 1962. Significantly, § 1963(a)(2) expressly limits forfeitable interests to those in an enterprise. Guiding our efforts at statutory construction in the past has been the presumption that “where Congress includes particular language in one section of a statute but omits it in another section of the same Act, ... Congress acts intentionally and purposely in the disparate inclusion or exclusion.” United States v. Wong Kim Bo, 472 F.2d 720, 722 (5th Cir. 1972).11 Hence the limitation in § 1963(a)(2), and the absence of limitation in § 1963(a)(1), confirm what the straightforward language of the latter already tells us: that § 1963(a)(1) reaches any interest derived from a violation of § 1962.
No definition of the term “interest” appears in RICO. We must assume “that the legislative purpose is expressed by the ordinary meaning of the words used.” Richards v. United States, 369 U.S. 1, 9, 82 S.Ct. 585, 7 L.Ed.2d 492 (1962). The common or dictionary definition of the term includes “right, title, or legal share in something; participation in advantage, profit, and responsibility.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 1178 (1971). It has also been defined as “[t]he most general term that can be employed to denote a right, claim, title, or legal share in something.” Black’s Law Dictionary 729 (5th ed. 1979). The concept is therefore broad enough to include profits or income. Indeed, this understanding comports with the House Report’s definition of “interest” as inclusive of “all property and interests, as broadly described, which are related to the violations.” H.R.Rep.No.1549, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 57, reprinted in [1970] U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 4007.
Not only is the concept of profits or proceeds within the plain meaning of “interest,” but the proceeds in question in this case were “acquired ... in violation of section 1962,” as § 1963(a)(1) requires. The insurance proceeds were the product of the defendants’ violation of § 1962(e). That section makes it unlawful for “any person .. . associated with any enterprise ... to conduct or participate ... in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity .... ” In this case, members of the arson ring conducted the affairs of that enterprise through the racketeering offenses of arson and mail fraud. Thus the unambiguous language of § 1963(a)(1) supports the view that profits derived from a pattern of racketeering activities are subject to forfeiture.
[955]*955Defendants and amicus12 maintain that their position — that forfeitable interests under § 1963(a)(1) are limited to interests in an enterprise — also is supported by the language of the statute. Their analysis of the statute cannot withstand scrutiny. The only express limitation on forfeitable interests imposed by the language of the statute itself is that the interest must be “acquired or maintained in violation of section 1962.” Defendants and amicus, however, read a further limitation into this language. Specifically they argue that “one acquires or maintains an interest in violation of Section 1962 only when he acquires or maintains an interest in contravention of Sections 1962(a) or (b).” Brief for Amicus Curiae at 7 (emphasis added). Briefly, § 1962(a) proscribes the use or investment of illegally derived income to acquire, establish, or operate an enterprise, while § 1962(b) prohibits the use of racketeering methods to acquire or maintain an interest in an enterprise.13 Accordingly, the defendants and amicus argue, the link between the prohibitory provisions in §§ 1962(a) and (b), which refer to acquiring or maintaining violations, and the penal provision in § 1963(a)(1), which refers to interests “acquired or maintained” in violation of RICO, is clear. This reasoning, however, is flawed in several respects. First, it completely ignores § 1962(c). The language of § 1963(a)(1) ties forfeiture to violation of any of the prohibitory provisions in § 1962, not just §§ 1962(a) and (b).14
Second, the argument of defendants and amicus misconstrues the function of the reference in § 1963(a)(1) to § 1962. To be sure, the reference serves a kind of limiting function, but that function is not to define the type of forfeitable interests, as defendants and amicus assume. Rather, the reference merely identifies the illegal activities which trigger the forfeiture penalty, supplying the nexus between the RICO violation and the forfeitable property which the government must establish at trial.15
Third, reading an enterprise limitation into § 1963(a)(1) renders that section sur-plusage. Section 1963(a)(2) on its face requires forfeiture of “any interest in ... any enterprise which [the defendant] has established, operated, controlled, conducted, or participated in the conduct of, in violation of section 1962.” The establishment, operation, and control language clearly refers to violations of §§ 1962(a) and (b). Section 1963(a)(1) would merely be duplica-tive of this provision if, as defendants contend, it reaches only interests in an enter[956]*956prise acquired or maintained in violation of §§ 1962(a) and (b).
The cure for these defects in reasoning lies in an examination of the effect of § 1963(a)(1) on a § 1962(c) violation. Section 1962(c) makes conducting an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering unlawful. The forfeiture resulting therefrom, under § 1963(a)(1), is the interest (or interests) acquired through or as a result of that unlawful conduct. Forfeiture of defendant’s interest in the enterprise is governed by the impact of § 1963(a)(1) and (2) upon § 1962(a) and (b). If § 1962(c) results in any forfeiture at all — and § 1963(a) provides for forfeiture if one violates any § 1962 section — it must provide for forfeiture of something more than § 1962(a) or (b) or be mere surplusage. This interpretation restores § 1963(a)(1) to a role in the penalty scheme different from that played by § 1963(a)(2) and accords with the unambiguous language of the former section.
B
Turning now from the language of the statute itself to expressions of legislative intent, we find confirmation for our view that § 1963(a)(1) reaches profits derived from racketeering activity.16 In its Statement of Findings and Purpose prefatory to the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Congress spoke of the problem it sought to resolve in the following words:
(1) organized crime in the United States is a highly sophisticated, diversified, and widespread activity that annually drains billions of dollars from America’s economy by unlawful conduct and the illegal use of force, fraud, and corruption; (2) organized crime derives a major portion of its power through money obtained from such illegal endeavors as syndicated gambling, loan sharking, the theft and fencing of property, the importation and distribution of narcotics and other dangerous drugs, and other forms of social exploitation; (3) this money and power are increasingly used to infiltrate and corrupt legitimate business and labor unions and to subvert and corrupt our democratic processes; (4) organized crime activities in the United States weaken the stability of the Nation’s economic system, harm innocent investors and competing organizations, interfere with free competition, seriously burden interstate and foreign commerce, threaten the domestic security, and undermine the general welfare of the Nation and its citizens ....
Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Pub.L.No.91-452, 84 Stat. 922-23 (1970) (emphasis added). Having identified the problem, Congress also determined the cause for the criminal justice system’s failure to make inroads on organized crime and its economic power base and proposed the cure it envisioned the new Act to embody.
[Sjanctions and remedies available to the Government are unnecessarily limited in scope and impact.
It is the purpose of this Act to seek the eradication of organized crime in the United States by strengthening the legal tools in the evidence-gathering process, by establishing new penal prohibitions, and by providing enhanced sanctions and new remedies to deal with the unlawful activities of those engaged in organized crime.
[957]*957Id. at 923 (emphasis added). The Senate Committee Report on the bill reiterated this philosophy.
What is needed here, the committee believes, are new approaches that will deal not only with individuals, but also with the economic base through which those individuals constitute such a serious threat to the economic well being of the Nation. In short, an attack must be made on their source of economic power itself, and the attack must take place on all available fronts.
S.Rep.No.617, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 79 (1969) (emphasis added). Simply put, Congress’ express objective in RICO is to take the profit out of organized crime.17
The criminal forfeiture provisions of § 1963(a) are central to this remedial objective. Section 1963(a) launches a two-pronged attack on the sources of economic power which feed the coffers and activities of organized crime. It demands both divestiture of power over the enterprise itself18 and seizure of the income derived from racketeering activities.
From the debates on the Organized Crime Control Act, it is clear that the target of Congress’ attack included racketeering operations in which the chief type of property interest obtained by organized crime would be something other than an ownership or proprietary interest.19 For example, the legislative history refers to instances in which organized crime members infiltrate legitimate businesses, “bleed” these companies through fraud or theft, and thus force them into bankruptcy.20 Organized crime [958]*958was also linked to credit card and bad check frauds, 116 Cong.Rec. 970 (1970) (remarks of Sen. Bible), and to theft from welfare and pension funds, 115 Cong.Rec. 5874 (1969) (remarks of Sen. McClellan). The Senate Report cited examples of arson schemes, particularly in the context of liquidating defaulted loan shark debts by burning the debtor’s property and collecting the insurance proceeds. S.Rep.No.617, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 77 (1969). See also 115 Cong.Rec. 5873 (1969) (remarks of Sen. McClellan). Narcotics trafficking, loan sharking, insurance fraud, extortion, gambling, and prostitution — all crimes in which the proceeds primarily consist of money— were all objects of congressional concern.21
In addition, when as here the RICO enterprise is an association in fact, rather than a legal entity, and the alleged RICO violation is conducting the affairs of this enterprise through racketeering methods, there often may be no forfeitable property other than the ill-gotten proceeds. Such may be the case not only with arson-for-profit rings but also with narcotics trafficking or pornography operations. It would certainly be contrary to Congress’ stated intention to attack organized crime’s source of economic power “on all available fronts,” S.Rep.No.617, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 79 (1969), to insulate from forfeiture the sole product of many racketeering activities. Excluding proceeds from the reach of § 1963(a)(1) would provide an incentive, not a deterrent, to bankruptcy schemes and to other forms of racketeering which yield primarily cash revenues.
Still further support for a broad interpretation of § 1963(a)(1) is found in the legislative history.22 An early draft of RICO, S. 1861, which was introduced on April 18, 1969, contained only one basic forfeiture provision and did expressly limit forfeitable property to interests in an enterprise. It read in full:
Whoever violates any provision of section 1962 of this chapter shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall forfeit to the United States all interest in the enterprise engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce.
S. 1861, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. (1969). In mid-October, however, the Senate Judiciary Committee began a revision of RICO. Out of the revision developed a section 1963(a) containing two subparts. Section 1963(a)(2) retained the concept of limiting forfeiture to a defendant’s interest in an enterprise. On the other hand, section 1963(a)(1) dropped the enterprise limitation altogether. We find it persuasive that Congress considered limiting all forfeitures under RICO to enterprise interests but, after extensive legislative work, ultimately opted to delete this across-the-board restriction.
Finally, in examining the legislative history we must address one of the chief reasons cited by the panel for its conclusion that § 1963(a)(1) does not reach the insurance proceeds at issue here. In August 1969 Congress received a letter from then Deputy Attorney General Richard P. Klein-dienst commenting upon RICO’s forfeiture provision. It expressed the views of the Justice Department as follows:
It is felt that this revival of the concept of forfeiture as a criminal penalty, limited. as it is in Section 1963(a) to one’s interest in the enterprise which is the subject of the specific offense involved here, and not extending to any other property of the convicted offender, is a [959]*959matter of Congressional wisdom rather than of constitutional power ....
Measures Relating to Organized Crime, Hearings Before the Subcomm. on Criminal Laws and Procedures of the Senate Comm, on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 407 (1969) (emphasis added). The panel viewed the letter as indicative of congressional intent strictly to limit forfeitures. This interpretation of the letter’s significance, however, ignores its context.
First, Congress was aware that it was entering new territory with the enactment of RICO; there was concern particularly over the constitutionality of the sanction of in personam criminal forfeiture.23 The Kleindienst letter addresses that concern, explaining that constitutional problems are avoided by the requirement of a nexus between a § 1962 violation and the interest to be forfeited. Furthermore, the letter was submitted as a commentary on S. 1861, the original draft of RICO, which, as we have noted above, contained a unitary forfeiture provision with an express enterprise limitation. While the Senate Report on S. 30, the bill ultimately enacted, does cite Klein-dienst’s letter,24 nothing in the report suggests that the letter provides a technical commentary on the scope of each section of the expanded bill.
Our more limited interpretation of the meaning of the Kleindienst letter finds support in the Justice Department’s comments in subsequent House hearings on S. 30 as it passed the Senate.
[Title IX] contains a provision for the forfeiture of any interest which has been attained in violation of the criminal provisions of the statute. The Department of Justice commented at length upon the constitutionality of this sanction in a report on S. 1861, from which Title IX has been derived, in [the Kleindienst letter]
Hearings on S. 30 Before Subcomm. No. 5 of the House Comm, on the Judiciary, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. 171 (1970) (emphasis added). Notably, the Justice Department’s comments on S. 30 do not describe § 1963(a) forfeitures as limited to interests in an enterprise.
Ill
Our holding today squarely conflicts with that of the Ninth Circuit in United States v. Marubeni America Corp., 611 F.2d 763 (9th Cir. 1980).25 But see United States v. Godoy, 678 F.2d 84 (9th Cir. 1982) (holding that commercial real estate purchased with profits derived from racketeering activity is subject to forfeiture). For several reasons, some of which we have already discussed,26 [960]*960we find the Marubeni rationale unconvincing.
In Marubeni the Ninth Circuit focused much of its attention on the “1% investment exception” in § 1962(a). Id. at 766-67. To the general prohibition in § 1962(a) on investment of income derived from a pattern of racketeering activity Congress added an exception.
A purchase of securities on the open market for purposes of investment, and without the intention of controlling or participating in the control of the issuer, or of assisting another to do so, shall not be unlawful under this subsection if the securities of the issuer held by the purchaser, the members of his immediate family, and his or their accomplices in any pattern or racketeering activity or the collection of an unlawful debt after such purchase do not amount in the aggregate to one percent of the outstanding securities of any one class, and do not confer, either in law or in fact, the power to elect one or more directors of the issuer.
18 U.S.C. § 1962(a) (1976). From this the Ninth Circuit reasoned: “Congress would not have established rules for the investment of racketeering income, enforced by the penalty of criminal forfeiture, if it intended the government to seize that income regardless of how it was used.” 611 F.2d at 767. Our interpretation of § 1963(a)(1) does not, as the Ninth Circuit’s comment would imply, render § 1962(a)’s 1% investment exception meaningless. We believe that the court in Marubeni obscured the separate functions of the prohibitory and penalty provisions of RICO.
The 1% investment exception evidences Congress’ choice not to criminalize the investment of illegally derived income when the total investment is de minimis and thus would not grant the racketeer control over the business entity. So understood the exception functions as a practical limit, exempting from prosecution what otherwise would constitute illegal activity under § 1962(a). If the investment of illegally derived income constitutes less than 1% of the issuer’s outstanding shares, that investment alone violates no criminal proscription and hence triggers no forfeiture at all. The exception thus limits the definition of what is illegal. It does not immunize from forfeiture the fruits of activities that are made illegal under other provisions of §. 1962; it “does not create a class of investment of illicit income exempt from forfeiture.”27
The court in Marubeni also points to the use of the term “profits” in the forfeiture provision of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970, 21 U.S.C. § 848(a)(2)(A),28 as evidence that Congress would have expressed itself more clearly in § 1963(a)(1) if it had intended forfeiture of racketeering income. 611 F.2d at 766 n.7. As we observed above, the concept of “interest” is broad and encompasses the notion of profits. Moreover, Congress’ use of differing language for the two forfeiture provisions, with the more comprehensive term employed in RICO, is a logical byproduct of the different evils addressed by the two acts. Under attack in the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 is the narcotics trafficking industry in which organized crime is engaged. The continued dealing in illegal drugs which is proscribed by that Act typically involves cash transactions. By contrast, the interests acquired by violating RICO may take a variety of forms since many types of activity, primarily economic crimes, come within the scope of its prohibitions. See 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1) (Supp. IV. 1980) (definition of “racketeering activity”). Hence Congress’ use of “profits” in 21 U.S.C. § 848(a)(2)(A) cannot support the negative inference the court in Marubeni perceived it to have as to the meaning of “interest” in 18 U.S.C. § 1963(a)(1).
IV
At oral argument a question was raised as to whether the government has an obli[961]*961gation to trace and identify the current form of monetary proceeds before it may collect on a forfeiture order. Clearly this issue goes to collectibility and related procedures and not to the type of interests for-feitable under § 1963(a)(1). The parties did not brief this issue, and we do not resolve it today. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1963(c)29 and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32(b)(2),30 the district court must determine the terms and conditions under which the defendants must comply with the monetary forfeitures declared in the special jury verdict and affirmed by our holding today. Because on remand the district judge must undertake this task, we make a few observations on the nature of the questions with which he must grapple. Focusing on the in personam character of RICO criminal forfeiture, the government contends in a supplemental letter to this court that it has no obligation whatever at this point31 to trace the insurance proceeds into their current form. According to the government, the monetary forfeiture order is like any other money judgment, permitting it to satisfy the judgment from any of the defendants’ current assets.32 Commentators, on the other hand, have suggested that normal principles of restitution, particularly the theories of constructive trust and equitable lien, should be applied to trace forfeitable property that has changed form.33 We intimate no views on the question, leaving it for the district court to determine in the first instance if the issue be raised there.34
V
RICO is a powerful and flexible weapon designed to break the economic power of organized crime and hence to undermine its ability to disrupt and drain the national economy. We acknowledge that its breadth supplies a potential for great abuse. The harshness of the statute's impact, however, cannot dictate the proper construction of its provisions. Congress was aware of the far-reaching measures it was enacting to deal with the unprecedented problem of organized crime. The plain language of the statute, its remedial and deterrent purposes, and the legislative history all compel the conclusion that § 1963(a)(1) encompasses forfeiture of the income or proceeds of racketeering activity.
The judgment of the district court on the forfeiture issue is
[962]*962AFFIRMED; REMANDED FOR FURTHER PROCEEDINGS.35