Group (as a whole) about to get ill-gotten gains (8)
I believe the answer is:
caboodle
'group as a whole' is the definition.
'caboodle' can be an answer for 'group' (I've seen this before). I'm unsure of the 'as a whole' bit.
'about to get ill-gotten gains' is the wordplay.
'about' becomes 'ca' (circa).
'to get' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'ill-gotten gains' becomes 'boodle' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ca'+'boodle'='CABOODLE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for caboodle that I've seen before include "Group" , "Crowd, collection" , "The whole kit and ..., the lot" , ""The whole ___" - everything" .)