sufficiently distinct from the BOA-Urban association-in-fact enterprise and that BOA conducted the affairs of the enterprise rather than simply its own affairs. Because the plaintiffs plausibly allege the existence of an association-in-fact enterprise distinct from BOA, we hold that the district court erred in concluding the plaintiffs failed to adequately plead the enterprise element of their RICO claim.
B. The plaintiffs sufficiently allege Urban’s participation in the conduct of the alleged enterprise.
Next, the plaintiffs challenge the district court’s conclusion that they failed to adequately plead Urban’s participation in the conduct of the alleged enterprise. Urban urges us to affirm the district court’s ruling, arguing that the plaintiffs’ allegations show only that BOA assigned certain tasks to Urban, that BOA directed Urban’s performance of those tasks, and that Urban merely provided its regular services to BOA by performing those tasks.
RICO requires a showing that the defendant “eonduct[ed] or participate[d], directly or indirectly, in the conduct of [the] enterprise’s affairs.” 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c). This, in turn, requires a showing that the defendant “participate[d] in the operation or management of the enterprise itself.” Reves v. Ernst & Young, 507 U.S. 170, 185, 113 S.Ct. 1163, 122 L.Ed.2d 525 (1993). Under Reves’ operation or management test, the defendant must have “some part in directing” the enterprise’s affairs. Id. at 179, 113 S.Ct. 1163. But importantly, the defendant need not have “primary responsibility for the enterprise’s affairs,” “a formal position in the enterprise,” or “significant control over or within an enterprise.” Id. at 179 & n.4, 184, 113 S.Ct. 1163. Instead, even “lower rung participants in the enterprise who are under the direction of upper management” may be liable under RICO if they have “some part” in operating or managing the enterprise’s affairs. Id. at 179, 184, 113 S.Ct. 1163. See also BancOklahoma Mortg. Corp. v. Capital Title Co., 194 F.3d 1089, 1100 (10th Cir. 1999) (applying Reves). Nevertheless, a defendant must do more than simply provide, through its regular course of business, goods and services that ultimately benefit the enterprise. Id. at 1101-02.
As we’ve discussed, the plaintiffs allege BOA and Urban formed an association-in-fact enterprise to pursue the common goal of wrongfully denying HAMP modification loans to eligible borrowers. Further, they allege that BOA delegated certain tasks to Urban and directed or supervised Urban’s performance of those tasks.
Here, after discussing Reves’ operation and management test, the district court misidentified the relevant question as: “whether, as an outside contractor having no official position within the enterprise, Urban [was] nonetheless liable for having an association with and exerting control over the enterprise.” App. 257. Citing the principle from BancOklahoma that a corporate defendant isn’t liable under RICO simply for providing its regular services to a RICO enterprise, the district court then reasoned that the plaintiffs’ allegations demonstrated, at most, that Urban provided its regular services to BOA, at BOA’s direction, and did not operate or manage the enterprise’s affairs.
Because the plaintiffs allege an association-in-fact enterprise composed primarily of BOA and Urban, the district court mistakenly characterized Urban as an “outside contractor having no official position” in the enterprise. Id. While Urban had no official position in BOA, as we’ve discussed, BOA was not the alleged enterprise. The district court then compounded this error by concluding that the plaintiffs’ allegations showed that Urban