Gangs in Sweden have been using Spotify for money laundering
Swedish gang members have been using music streaming service Spotify for money laundering, according to a new report.
Svenska Dagbladet, a Swedish daily newspaper, has reported that gang members have used money from various criminal activities to pay for fake Spotify streams. Money obtained from drug deals, robberies, fraud, and contract killings has been converted into Bitcoin, which has then been used to increase the streams of artists with links to the gangs.
The newspaper quotes an anonymous police source stating that Spotify is now used by criminals: “they suspect that the gangs launder money from drug dealing, robberies, fraud and assassination missions, via the platform”. According to the source, this “can amount to many millions each year”.
The anonymous police investigator reports that he tried to contact Spotify about the issue, but to no avail.
One source also suggested that the benefits of the platform are not only financial and that Spotify is “very good for recruiting purposes”. They explained, “If you’re a network and you want to attract kids and you have a rapper who’s going big, that’s half the job for you”.
The newspaper also asked Spotify for a comment, to which they received the response, “We have no evidence that money laundering occurred via Spotify.”
Their statement continued, “Manipulated streams are a challenge for the entire industry and a problem that Spotify is working hard to combat. It is important to know that Spotify does not make any payments directly to artists, but to rights holders and distributors. It is equally important not to misunderstand the extent of the problem with manipulated streams. Thanks in part to the fact that our payouts are not real-time, our systems detect and address anomalies before they reach material levels.”
Spotify algorithms have also led to an increased number of fake artists on the platform.
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