WhatsApp Group of 532 Members Uncovered as Money Laundering Route for Hundreds of Millions of Euros
An investigation by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), including the BBC, has uncovered a WhatsApp group used to transfer hundreds of millions of euros in cash across the globe. These transactions were used to fund organised crime and extremist groups without leaving a formal paper trail.
The chat group, named ‘Traders of Greater Europe’, consisted of 5 and 32 members. The group was used to coordinate cross-border money transfers for clients, including to several UK cities such as Birmingham and London. In one instance, funds sent from Brussels were found to have flowed to Islamic State (IS/ISIS) militants in Syria.
The existence of the group, which contained over 82,000 messages from late February to December 2022, was first revealed by Belgian examining magistrate Vincent Guerra. The case, which initially focused on terrorism financing investigations, expanded to uncover a much larger underground financial network.
Guerra stated that the volume of transactions within the group was staggering and spanned the entire planet. ‘This is not merely amateur work; it is professional, and at a level we never previously imagined,’ said Guerra. ‘They are bankers without government oversight.’
Group members exchanged messages in Arabic to arrange cash payments using the hawala system. This traditional financial system relies on a network of trusted brokers (hawaladars) to move global funds without electronic records or the physical movement of banknotes.
While hawala is often used legitimately by migrant workers to send money to their families, the system is frequently exploited by criminals to evade the international banking SWIFT system, which requires the reporting of suspicious activities.
The EBU investigation obtained the WhatsApp message data following a 2024 trial in Belgium that convicted six money laundering perpetrators. Belgian police found evidence that the defendants sent money to IS groups to assist the wives of militants in escaping detention camps in Syria.
Upon arresting the network leader in Brussels, known as Abu Adam, police discovered the WhatsApp group on his phone alongside 6,000 photos of 5-euro notes and 6,000 photos of identity cards used as transaction verification codes. Guerra estimates that Abu Adam processed at least 12,000 transactions.
The use of the hawala system by criminal networks has also been found in other parts of Europe, involving cases of human and narcotics trafficking. In Austria, police raided the largest hawala office in Vienna, which was operating under the guise of a kebab restaurant. Two brothers from Syria operating the location were found to be involved in human trafficking and the torture of couriers, resulting in prison sentences of 18 and 8 years.
Europol police commander and liaison official Quentin Mugg emphasised that the hawala system has become a primary channel for money laundering by organised crime.
‘Whether the money comes from migrant smuggling, human trafficking, prostitution, a grandmother’s savings sent as a birthday gift to her son, or a Malian citizen in France wanting to support his family, [the hawaladars] do not care at all,’ Mugg stated. ‘And they will continue to apply their fees.’