WhatsApp chat used to launder cash for crime and extremism
A WhatsApp group chat was used to launder hundreds of millions of euros in cash around the world, funding organised crime and extremism with no paper trail, an investigation by European broadcasters has found.
A European investigative network has uncovered a WhatsApp group chat that was used to launder hundreds of millions of euros for organized crime and extremist groups, with no paper trail. The group, called "Traders of Greater Europe," consisted of 532 members and was used for international cash transfers, including payments to Islamic State militants in Syria.
The investigation, conducted by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), revealed wider evidence of similar cash transfer systems being used in people smuggling and drug trafficking. The WhatsApp messages, discovered by Belgian magistrate Vincent Guerra, contained over 82,000 messages sent between February 2022 and December 2022. The group chat operated using the hawala transfer system, a network of trusted money brokers who could arrange funds transfers without any electronic record.
This method, often used for legitimate purposes like immigrant workers sending money home, could also be exploited by criminals to avoid the Swift system used for most international money transfers. In one case, payments from Brussels went directly to IS militants in Syria. The investigation began as an inquiry into terror financing but quickly expanded to encompass a vast network of transactions across the globe.
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