Backgrounder and counter-terrorist financing options. In this post, I explore the financing mechanisms used by Atomwaffen Division and the new iteration of the group, National Socialist Order. Both AWD and NSO, as well as James Mason, one of the ideological leaders of AWD, are all listed terrorist entities in Canada. Like many ideologically-motivated violent extremist groups, AWD is largely self-funded by its members, and uses its funds for low-complexity attacks. The group also raises some funds through propaganda sales, but how these funds are used, stored, and managed, remains unclear. Counter-terrorist financing options are limited due to the group’s financial (and networked) structure, but financial intelligence and financial exclusion practices are likely to yield the greatest results against the group and subsequent iterations of the group and its members. (…) Atomwaffen Division (AWD) is a neo-Nazi terrorist group founded in the United States in 2015. In 2020, the group announced that it was disbanding, although shortly thereafter members of the group created the National Socialist Order (NSO), which is widely considered to be the same entity. In 2019, there were approximately 60-80 members of AWD and a smaller number of “initiates”; however, AWD/NSO uses a decentralized cell structure, so estimates of actual membership vary₁. AWD has offshoots or associated cells in several countries including Germany (Feuerkrieg Division)₂ , the UK (Sonnenkrieg Division – although the exact nature of the relationship between the groups is debated), Poland, Canada, Czech Republic, Ukraine₃, and Russia. AWD originally organized online, mostly through Discord (a communications platform), and while there is no publicly available information suggesting that the group raised money through Discord, the platform does provide the ability for users to generate funds through private servers, advertisements, donations, and sponsorship.
Most of the AWD/NSO funding likely comes from members’ self-financing. For instance, AWD member William James Tschantre cashed in $3,000 of savings and quit his fast-food job before purchasing a pair of rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. The group might also use propaganda sales to support some aspects of its organization as well as some of its members. For instance, AWD has used Amazon CreateSpace to sell propaganda₄, and AWD has sold merchandise including t-shirts, mugs, books, and according to information provided by Canada to the Financial Action Task Force, the group has used some of these funds to support other members accused of crimes₅.
via journal-exit: Atomwaffen Division Financing