OpenSanctions Search Application

The yente API provides endpoints that help you determine if any of the people or companies mentioned in your data are subject to international sanctions, known to be involved in criminal activity, or if they are politically exposed people.

Features

This application allows users to search in the OpenSanctions database and keeps a history of searches and results.

Search for persons, companies, organizations, legal entities, and public bodies.

Advanced search capabilities with multiple criteria:

  • Name (can be anything, not just exact matches)
  • Person-specific fields (birthdate, nationality)
  • Company-specific fields (registration number, jurisdiction, legal form, date of incorporation)
  • Organization-specific fields (country, legal form, date of incorporation, status)
  • Legal entity-specific fields (country, legal form, date of incorporation, status)
  • Public body-specific fields (country, legal form, date of incorporation, status)

View detailed information about search results including:

  • Basic entity information
  • Sanction status
  • Nationality and citizenship
  • Business sector
  • Topics and categories
  • Source datasets
  • Link to the entity page in the OpenSanctions website

View past searches and their results

  • The application keeps a history of searches and results in a PostgreSQL database.
  • Users can view their search history and the details of each search.
  • The history includes the search criteria, the number of results, and the date of the search.
  • Users can delete individual search history entries or delete all.
  • The history is paginated for easier navigation.

API Integration

The default dataset is recommended by OpenSanctions for screening applications since it aggregates data from multiple sources.

The API endpoint used is the self-hosted OpenSanctions API, which is available at:

https://yente.colead.link/match/default

Entity Types in OpenSanctions

The OpenSanctions data model includes several entity types with hierarchical relationships. The ones we use in this application are:

Person

  • Extends both LegalEntity and Thing
  • A natural person, as opposed to a corporation of some type.

LegalEntity

  • Base type for all legal entities (persons, organizations, companies)
  • Contains common properties like name, address, country, etc.

Organization

  • Extends LegalEntity
  • Represents any type of incorporated entity that cannot be owned by another
  • Examples: charities, foundations, non-profits
  • Key properties: name, country, legalForm, status

Company

  • Extends both Organization and Asset
  • Represents a corporation, usually for profit
  • Can be owned by other legal entities (since it's also an Asset)
  • Key properties: name, jurisdiction, registrationNumber, incorporationDate
  • Examples: private companies, public companies, funds

PublicBody

  • Extends Organization
  • Represents a government entity or state-owned enterprise
  • Examples: ministries, departments, state companies

The key difference between Company and Organization is that a Company can be owned (it's also an Asset), while a regular Organization cannot be owned. PublicBody is a specific type of Organization for government entities.