Screen a company's owners against sanctions

Last updated: May 21, 2026

Screening a single company name against the sanctions lists misses the risk that sits in its owners and affiliates. The safer pattern is to map the corporate family first, then screen every entity in it. LiveDataLink lets an agent do this with three tools: resolve_entity to pin the identity and its parent, corporate_ownership_tree to list the wider ownership tree, and sanctions_screen_entity to screen each name against the OFAC SDN, EU, UN, and BIS lists.

Step 1: resolve the entity and its parent

Start with the canonical identity so you screen the right legal entity, not a same-name lookalike. resolve_entity returns the GLEIF LEI with the direct and ultimate parent, plus a built-in OFAC, EU, UN, and BIS match flag on the resolved name itself.

{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "resolve_entity",
    "arguments": { "name": "Acme Robotics Inc" }
  }
}

The sanctions flag here is a fast first read on the operating entity. The ultimate parent it returns is the thread you pull next.

Step 2: map the ownership tree

corporate_ownership_tree takes the company name or its 20-character lei, climbs to the ultimate parent, and walks down to the reported direct subsidiaries and one level of grand-subsidiaries, each with its LEI and jurisdiction. That gives you the list of related legal entities to screen, not just the one name a user typed.

{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "corporate_ownership_tree",
    "arguments": { "company": "Acme Robotics Inc" }
  }
}

Step 3: screen every entity in the tree

For each name in the tree (the queried entity, its ultimate parent, and the subsidiaries), call sanctions_screen_entity. It screens one name against all four lists in a single request and returns candidate matches with confidence scores.

{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "sanctions_screen_entity",
    "arguments": { "name": "Acme Robotics Holdings BV" }
  }
}

To screen the whole tree in one shot, hand the list of names to sanctions_screen_batch, which takes a names array of up to 50 and returns one result block per name in input order.

What a hit means, and the limits

Screening is fuzzy name matching, so a candidate is a starting point, not a verdict. A human reviews each candidate against identifiers like date of birth, address, and aliases and resolves it as a true match or a false positive. If you confirm a true match, US persons generally must block the property or transaction and report it to OFAC, usually within 10 business days, and must not tip off the subject. Note the coverage boundary too: GLEIF ownership is legal-entity ownership that companies self-report, not a certified register of natural-person beneficial owners, so use this to screen the corporate family you can see and confirm ultimate beneficial ownership through the appropriate registry for high-stakes cases. The packaged KYB workflow lives at /compliance-pack.

FAQ

Why screen the parent and subsidiaries, not just the company?

Sanctions risk often sits in an owner or affiliate rather than the operating name in front of you. Mapping the ownership tree first, then screening each entity, catches exposure that a single-name screen would miss.

Which lists does one screen cover?

The OFAC SDN list, the EU consolidated list, the UN consolidated list, and the US Commerce BIS Denied Persons list, all in a single sanctions_screen_entity call.

Does this replace a beneficial-ownership check?

No. GLEIF maps legal-entity ownership that companies self-report, not the natural persons who ultimately own a private entity. Use it to screen the visible corporate family, and confirm ultimate beneficial owners through the appropriate registry when the decision warrants it.

Last updated: May 21, 2026 · LiveDataLink home