Attorney General Alan Wilson secures new commitments from WeChat to combat fentanyl money laundering

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - Attorney General Alan Wilson announced today that after months of pressure from a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general, WeChat has agreed to specific, enforceable commitments to help American law enforcement disrupt fentanyl-related money laundering on its platform.

“One of my top priorities as Attorney General is fighting illegal fentanyl distribution because it’s killing South Carolinians,” Attorney General Wilson said. “We’re also working to stop the money laundering that allows these drug dealers to stay in business.”

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 Wilson was joined in securing these agreements by the attorneys general of North Carolina, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Kentucky, and Colorado.

A copy of the letter is available HERE.