Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representatives Beth Van Duyne (R-TX-24) and Troy Nehls (R-TX-22) announced the introduction of the Stop FUNDERs Act, which adds rioting and those who fund or organize such violent and coordinated activities to be included as a crime under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. This commonsense expansion of the RICO Act has become an obvious necessity as American cities are routinely besieged by violent activists with pre-printed materials, armed with weaponry and communications equipment, and are using deadly force to attack law enforcement officers, public property, and private businesses. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).

“The standard of treating violent, extremist activists as individual criminals must end. It is time we empower our law enforcement with a commonsense tool to treat these violent mobs, their funding sources, and their organizers as the criminal enterprises they are by passing the Stop FUNDERs Act,” said Congresswoman Van Duyne.  “Since the days of the George Floyd riots, to the violence we see across American cities and college campuses today, it is obvious there are well funded, well outfitted, and highly coordinated efforts to plan and execute violent and potentially deadly missions of chaos and mayhem. This is organized crime, and we need to attack it as such.”

"Every American has the right to freedom of speech and peaceful protest, but not to commit violence," said Senator Cruz. "Domestic NGOs and foreign adversaries fund and use riots in the United States to undermine the security and prosperity of Americans. My legislation will give the Department of Justice the tools it needs to hold them accountable, and I urge colleagues to pass it expeditiously."

“For too long, those who incite and orchestrate destructive riots have hidden behind the chaos they unleash, leaving communities destroyed while facing zero accountability,” said Congressman Nehls. “I’m proud to cosponsor Rep. Beth Van Duyne’s Stop FUNDERs Act. By classifying organized rioting as a predicate act under RICO, this bill would give law enforcement the tools to dismantle criminal enterprises that direct and profit from civil unrest, ensuring that the architects of destruction face accountability for organizing chaos and undermining public order.”

As evidenced by the July 4^th coordinated assault and ambush on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, TX, a team of violent anarchists operated in conjunction to lure law enforcement officers out of their facility and then attempt to kill them with rifle fire from pre-planned positions. The fourteen people arrested in connection with this attack were outfitted in black military style clothing, armed with fireworks, and high-powered AR-style rifles. Recently arrested fugitive Benjamin Hanil Song, who is being charged by federal complaint with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents and three counts of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, has a multi-year history of participating in armed rioting.  

“These are not spontaneous acts of civil disobedience by outraged individuals,” continued Rep. Van Duyne. “When we are seeing years of violent activities spanning across numerous cities and being conducted by the same violent actors, we must use different tactics to arrest, charge, and disrupt these radical organizations.”

The Stop FUNDERs Act will: 

• Amend 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1) to add “rioting,” as defined in the Anti-Riot Act, to the list of racketeering predicate offenses. 
• Enable the Department of Justice to use RICO tools—including joint liability and group prosecution, conspiracy charges, asset forfeiture, and enhanced criminal penalties—against organizations and individuals who repeatedly fund or coordinate violent interstate riots. 
• Deter abuse of nonprofit status and expose hidden financial pipelines behind politically motivated violence.

Click HERE for bill text.

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