App used in fentanyl money laundering agrees to tighter enforcement rules

CONCORD - The state Attorney Generals Office announced on Sunday that after months of pressure from the New Hampshire Department of Justice along with a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general, the messaging platform WeChat has agreed to specific, enforceable commitments to help U.S. law enforcement disrupt fentanyl-related money laundering on its platform, including activity connected to Chinese-based money laundering networks.

"Fentanyl traffickers and the criminal networks that profit from them often rely on sophisticated international money laundering operations, including brokers operating in China," said Attorney General John M. Formella. "This bipartisan effort makes clear that online platforms must work with law enforcement to prevent their services from being used to facilitate the movement of drug money across borders."

In May, the coalition sent WeChat a public letter detailing evidence of the platform's role in facilitating the laundering pipeline and demanding concrete action within 30 days.

WeChat has now made the following commitments:

• Deploy tools to identify and report public and semi-public content matching patterns associated with money laundering and drug trafficking coordination, such as posts advertising broker services or soliciting bulk cash transactions.
• Comply with lawful requests for basic account information - WeChat ID, linked phone number, email address, and metadata - tied to specific law enforcement investigations.
• Respond to emergency and preservation requests from law enforcement within 48 hours.
• Preserve data requested by law enforcement for the duration of the relevant investigation or case.
• Maintain a dedicated law enforcement contact to process requests in a timely manner.

WeChat's Chinese-based sister app, Weixin, still operates under Chinese data privacy laws and does not currently respond to U.S. law enforcement requests. Since many of the money brokers facilitating these transactions are based in China, closing that gap is the next priority, and the coalition of attorneys general is actively working on it.

Attorney General Formella was joined in securing these agreements by the Attorneys General of North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, New Jersey, Kentucky, and Colorado.