A whistleblower complaint filed with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit, or FinCEN, alleges that Mastercard and Visa failed to stop their payment networks from laundering funds from child sexual abuse material and sex trafficking on OnlyFans, according to Reuters.
The complaint, which Reuters reports was filed by a senior financial compliance expert, claims that the payment giants were aware that their networks were used to pay for illegal content on OnlyFans, a social media platform where fans pay to follow individuals who post photos and videos of themselves. The whistleblower accused the companies of “turning a blind eye to flows of illicit revenue,” according to Reuters.
In a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, FinCen said it doesn’t comment on submissions to its whistleblower program, “including whether FinCEN has received submissions regarding a specific financial institution.” A spokesperson added, “FinCEN also does not comment on investigations, including to confirm whether one exists.”
Visa told CBS News that “we explicitly and unequivocally prohibit illegal activity on our network and condemn all forms of sexual abuse.” The company added, “We maintain robust compliance requirements for the financial institutions and merchants who submit transactions to the Visa network. Those unable to comply with our requirements will be terminated from our network.”
Mastercard said in an email that it has “zero tolerance for illegal activity on our network.”
“No evidence of current illegal activity has been provided to us,” the company added.
OnlyFans didn’t immediately respond to CBS News’ request for comment.
According to Reuters, the whistleblower complaint was filed in January 2023 with FinCEN and the U.S. Justice and Homeland Security departments. The whistleblower and other anti-trafficking experts had also allegedly alerted Mastercard and Visa about unlawful content on OnlyFans in 2021 and 2022, the article said.
In 2021, OnlyFans said it would tamp down sexually explicit content after requests from banking partners and companies that handle financial transactions. But the company reversed that decision soon afterwards following an outcry from some of its creators and users.
Aimee Picchi
Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
