Organized crime runs like any mature industry, complete with consultants, investors and a supply chain of lawyers, bankers and registration agents. According to Drew Sullivan, the financial system is one of the few places that can make it pay a price.
Drew is co-founder and publisher of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which has spent nearly 20 years investigating criminal networks and the businesses that serve them.
On October 29 at 9:35 AM PT, he delivers the first keynote at the 4th Annual Safer Ecommerce Day with “How Western Business Is Subsidizing Organized Crime — And How We Stop It.” We sat down with Drew ahead of the event, with PayPal’s Melissa Sutherland moderating.
Here is a sneak peek, plus what you can put into practice today:
1. Debanking is the pain criminals feel most
Asset seizures are rare and often come years too late. Drew calls them “more luck than anything else.” What hurts immediately is losing access to the financial system. “The number one problem that you can really cause them is to get them debanked,” he said.
For risk teams: Treat offboarding as a disruption tool, not just a compliance outcome. When adverse media or an investigation names a client, act quickly, and make sure exited clients can’t quietly return through a new entity or account.
2. Make every restart expensive
Organized crime has a weak spot: cost. Each disruption forces criminals to set up new offshore companies and move money again, paying 1 to 2 percent every time. “You gotta raise the cost of them doing business,” Drew said.
For risk teams: Link new applicants to previously offboarded merchants, sellers and advertisers through shared directors, addresses, bank accounts and websites. Every reboard you block forces another costly restart.
3. The weak point may be on the inside
Criminal groups know where the pressure points are, Drew said, and they often place people inside organizations to approve transactions or keep scrutiny away. He recalled a relative who worked hospital intake and knew certain claims were fraudulent, but felt it was “above their pay grade” to stop them. Melissa added that nation-state infiltration of payments is an under-recognized insider threat.
For risk teams: Give frontline staff a clear, safe way to escalate what looks wrong, and make sure someone acts on it. Watch for approval patterns that consistently bypass review, and bring insider risk into your fraud program.
Hear the full conversation on October 29
Drew will go deeper into the “criminal services industry” and how legitimate businesses can stop subsidizing it in his session at Safer Ecommerce Day. It’s one of a dozen sessions at the event, alongside speakers from Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, AARP, NACHA and Operation Shamrock.
- When: Thursday, October 29, 2026, 9:00 AM–4:30 PM PT
- Where: Online, free to attend
- Bonus: Eligible for up to 9 ETA CPP Continuing Education credits
- Can’t make it live? Register anyway to get all session recordings.