Swedish criminal gangs are using Spotify to launder money by engineering artificial hits on songs owned by gang affiliates to receive big payouts from the streaming platform.
The revelation comes from an investigative report by the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), which cites a whistleblower who recounted how gangs are exploiting the Swedish streaming giant to convert their dirty cash into legitimate income.
The informant, known by the fake name of Ismet, told SvD how the gangs, swimming in illegal cash generated through drugs, robberies, fraud, and people trafficking, are converting the proceeds of crime into cryptocurrency before paying individuals, whom he referred to as “Telegram bots,” after recruiting them on the encrypted messaging service to set up fake listens on Spotify on tracks under their control.
“We paid people who did this for us systematically,” Ismet explained.
“The bots ensured that we ended up on the top charts, by creating high pressure on a song. When we entered the top charts, we also got real streams,” he added.
The tracks were usually linked to Swedish gangster rap, which experienced a surge in popularity a few years ago and which has a close affiliation with organized crime groups.
One million streams generate around 60,000 Swedish krona which converts to just over €5,000, and Swedish gangster rap is receiving tens of millions of hits via the platform.
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