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Managing money acquired from human trafficking: case study of sex trafficking from Bulgaria to Western Europe

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Abstract

Often the criminal activities, especially organized criminal groups are aimed at generating large amounts of money in a short period of time. However, the criminal organizations differ in their approach to revenue management. This article focuses on the management of proceeds acquired from human trafficking and presents the results of an empirical study on the topic. This study is based on 152 semi-structured interviews conducted with sex workers, traffickers, law-enforcement representatives, and prosecutors. The article explores the movement of money within the criminal organizations, the methods of bookkeeping and accounting, and the basic techniques for laundering the proceeds acquired from sex trafficking from Bulgaria to Western Europe. By describing how the criminals engaged in human trafficking for sexual exploitation manage the money generated from this type of criminal activity, a better understanding of the criminal phenomenon itself can be attained.

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Notes

  1. A total of 37 documents—prosecutorial statements and investigation reports on human trafficking and money laundering have been researched.

  2. The data include all persons suspected for trafficking in persons—indigenous and foreigners. Information in Exploitation sexuelle et exploitation au travail (2007) cover the first five source countries. There may be other countries where trafficking is suspected, but are not presented in this report. The report for Belgium offers statistics about trafficking in persons for sexual and labor exploitation, but it specifically states that Bulgarians are specialized in the sexual exploitation of victims. The data on Germany only concerns sexual exploitation, while the data on Netherlands includes all types of human trafficking. However, a large number of the reported cases of trafficking are for sexual exploitation.

  3. The prices and the number of clients vary depending on the working location of the prostitutes. Some respondents, who have worked outdoors, in a window or a pouf, reported servicing more than 20 clients a day on a regular basis. The study does not provide information on elite prostitutes, who work for much higher rates. The amounts, quoted by respondents, vary from 400 EUR per hour to a daily turnover of 1,750 EUR. According to the data, a profitable girl can bring in over 10,000 EUR per month. Based on the information from court cases, prostitutes have reported a turnover of 12,000 to 15,000 EUR a month. In some cases, the prostitutes were required to reach a fixed daily turnover of 250 EUR, which many of them failed to do. Some prostitutes had start-up rates of 20 EUR per service.

  4. For previous years, the percentage is lower because of the smaller GDP. For instance, for 2007 it is between 1.8% and 3.5%, and for 2006, between 2% to 4%.

  5. Since there is no explicit information available on the existence of other higher levels in the structure of the three criminal organizations in hand, the regional boss is placed on top of the organization although, some information was obtained regarding the network connections and relations with other actors

  6. In this section we will present the results for the distribution of money which were obtained by this research. In conclusion we will try to summarize the minimum and maximum values allocated to the different parts in the organization described.

  7. All figures presented in the text are derived based on empirical data gathered during the research. The presented range of the sums of money allocated to the different levels of the criminal organizations are based on the information for each case—the lower margin is the lowest value for which we have available information, and the upper margin representss the highest value which was disclosed by the sources.

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  1. RiskMonitor and Bulgarian Academy of Science, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Georgi Petrunov

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  1. Georgi Petrunov
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Correspondence to Georgi Petrunov.

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Petrunov, G. Managing money acquired from human trafficking: case study of sex trafficking from Bulgaria to Western Europe. Trends Organ Crim 14, 165–183 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-011-9127-z

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