Universal Aryan Brotherhood Member Pleads Guilty for Participating in a Racketeering Conspiracy and Kidnapping

DOJ Press
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A member of the Universal Aryan Brotherhood pleaded guilty Thursday for his role in a racketeering enterprise, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson. The UAB is a “whites only” prison-based gang with members operating inside and outside of state prisons throughout Oklahoma.

Eddie L. Funkhouser, 51, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise and to kidnapping but refused to cooperate with the United States.

The plea agreement, if accepted by U.S. District Judge Claire V. Eagan, stipulates that Funkhouser will serve 15 years in prison. Judge Eagan will sentence Funkhouser on April 12, 2022.

“Universal Aryan Brotherhood gang member Eddie Funkhouser was brought to justice for his violent criminal acts, including a 2014 kidnapping,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Clint Johnson. “Thankfully, Homeland Security Investigations and IRS-Criminal Investigation joined forces with state and local law enforcement to take down UAB members and associates, including Funkhouser, who helped to expand and further the influence of this dangerous criminal enterprise.”


In his plea agreement, Funkhouser admitted to being part of the UAB criminal enterprise from about 2005 and continuing through December 2018.


Funkhouser stated that he conspired with other UAB members and associates to directly and indirectly further the gang’s criminal enterprise, consisting of criminal acts such as murder, kidnapping, robbery in violation of Oklahoma state law, and drug trafficking conspiracy acts that violated federal law. He further admitted that he knew and agreed that at least two gang members charged in the same indictment would commit racketeering crimes for the benefit of the UAB.

Funkhouser also admitted to personally being involved in the Oct. 26, 2014, kidnapping of two individuals. Funkhouser and other UAB members believed that one of the individuals was a law enforcement informant. As part of the kidnapping, Funkhouser participated in overt acts of intimidation meant to instill fear in the victims and to keep the victims confined against their will, believing there was no escape. Defendant Charles M. McCully, 44, also admitted to taking part in the 2014 kidnapping when he pleaded guilty in federal court on Nov. 30, 2021.

Funkhouser was indicted on Dec. 7, 2018, with 17 other UAB members and associates. The indictment was unsealed Feb. 20, 2019, and alleged the gang to be a racketeering enterprise that committed acts of murder, kidnapping, the trafficking of methamphetamine and firearms, money laundering, assault, and robbery throughout the State of Oklahoma. The indictment alleged that nine individuals were murdered as part of the UAB’s racketeering operations, often upon the orders of the Main Council, the highest governing body of the UAB.

The UAB was established in 1993 within the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and modeled itself after the principles and ideology of the Aryan Brotherhood, a California-based prison gang that formed in the 1960s.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and IRS-Criminal Investigation led the investigation with assistance from the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, the Tulsa and Enid Police Departments, the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis A. Fries is prosecuting this case.

You can find the press release announcing charges in February 2019 here.

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