CEP Webinar: The Financial Structures Of Violent Right-Wing Extremist Networks In Germany

(Berlin/New York, N.Y.) – The financing of violent right-wing extremist organizations and actors has increasingly become the focus of policy discussions. In 2020, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), commissioned by the German Federal Foreign Office, published a comprehensive study outlining the transnational connectivity of violent right-wing extremist and terrorist networks in Europe and the United States. This study identified financial streams and income structures. During a joint event in December 2020, organized by CEP at the United Nations and co-sponsored by Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, participants further analyzed these finance structures. In June 2021, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published its first ever report on the global financial structures of such networks.

Since January 2021, CEP as well as a range of experts have analyzed the diverse and broad financial structures of violent right-wing extremist networks in Germany. However, up-to-date in-depth analyses of financial strategies and sources of income are largely lacking. A “follow the money” approach to uncovering network structures, as is established practice in the fight against the financing of Islamist extremism and terrorism, does not yet seem to exist for this extremist milieu.

Sections of the right-wing extremist scenes, and in particular those that are closely integrated into transnational networks, seem to have professionalized their income mechanisms and follow distinct financial strategies. In a new analytical report, CEP has now outlined these structures and strategies. The results of this research will be presented and discussed during this webinar.

The webinar will be conducted in English via Zoom.

Date: Friday, September 24, 2021

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET / 16:00 CET

EVENT PROGRAM:

Moderator and Introduction:

Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director, CEP

Opening Remarks:

Gabriele Scheel, head of division “International Cooperation against Terrorism, Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime and Corruption,” Federal Foreign Office of Germany

Speakers:

Maximilian Kreter

PhD candidate, Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies e. V. (HAIT) at the TU Dresden and doctoral fellow, Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right

Jennifer Hanley-Giersch

Managing partner, Berlin Risk Advisors GmbH (BRA) and board member, ACAMS Germany Chapter

Alexander Ritzmann

Senior advisor, CEP and Radicalization Awareness Network (RAN) of the European Commission

Dr. Chia Lehnardt

Head of division “International Cooperation against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing,” Federal Ministry of Finance of Germany and Head of Delegation for Germany at the FATF

The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session open to all participants.

Please feel free to share this invitation with colleagues.

If you like to participate in this webinar, please register via the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rrbZEPZMQ0-JaoTR6z4gWA

Due to increased security requirements, we kindly request that you register for this webinar with your institutional email at least one hour prior to the start of the event. If this is not possible due to technical restrictions, please register with your personal email. We will then contact you in case of any questions. Thank you for your understanding.

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