[SilasX]

I think the parent was making a coy reference to the TV show Arrested Development, how it has a couple with the confused belief that the state can't prosecute both a husband and wife for the same crime[1].

In any case, in the US, the analogous legal structure for prosecuting such enterprise crimes is generally RICO:

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Racketeer_Influen...

[1] which I always read as those characters getting the wires crossed between double jeopardy (you can't re-prosecute someone for the same criminal act) and marital privilege (you get some level of protection from prosecution when you're married since spouses can't be forced to testify against each other). In the show, their attorney really does suck and they make excuses for him.

[tialaramex]

My understanding is that RICO is intended to allow them to go after the guy behind the crew, rather than crew members, whereas Joint Enterprise is intended to allow them to convict the whole crew when a crime can't be pinned on specific individual members (e.g. because they wore masks; or they all stay silent and won't rat on who actually did it)

RICO means you can prosecute the godfather when his enforcers beat up store owners that owed him money, Joint Enterprise means you can convict all three armed bank robbers of murder even though you can't prove which of them shot the bank manager in the head when she was too slow opening the safe.