playbooks / company-due-diligence

Company due diligence

Establish who owns and runs a company, where its money goes, whether it's sanctioned or sued, and how it connects to other entities.

start: ▤ companyyields: real name, location, domain, emaillevel: intermediate

1. 01

   Official registries

   Start with the company register for the jurisdiction. You get registration number, status, registered address, officers, filing history and sometimes beneficial owners. OpenCorporates searches across about 140 registries at once.

   • OpenCorporatesfreemiumacct optionalapidetails
   • UK Companies Housefreeapidetails
   • SEC EDGAR Full-Text Searchfreeapidetails
   • North Datafreemiumacct optionalapidetails
   • GLEIF LEI Searchfreeapidatasetdetails
   • Zefixfreeapidetails
   • Annuaire des Entreprisesfreeossapidetails

   → can yield: ☺Real name ⊕Location ▤Company

2. 02

   Officers and their other appointments

   Search every director across registries. Serial directors and shared registered addresses (formation agents) can reveal networks of shell companies.

   • OpenCorporatesfreemiumacct optionalapidetails
   • UK Companies Housefreeapidetails
   • LittleSisfreeacct optionalossapidetails

   → can yield: ☺Real name ▤Company

3. 03

   Offshore, leaks and investigations

   Check leaked offshore records (Panama, Paradise, Pandora Papers) and journalist datasets for the company and every officer.

   • ICIJ Offshore Leaks Databasefreedatasetdetails
   • OCCRP Alephfreeacct optionalossapidetails

   → can yield: ☺Real name ▤Company ⊕Location

4. 04

   Sanctions and PEPs

   Screen the entity and its people against sanctions lists and politically exposed persons data. Remember that ownership by a sanctioned person can taint a company that isn't listed itself.

   • OpenSanctionsfreemiumossapidatasetdetails
   • OFAC Sanctions List Searchfreedatasetdetails
   • EU Sanctions Mapfreedetails

   → can yield: ☺Real name

5. 05

   Litigation and government money

   Court records reveal disputes, fraud claims and creditors. US federal contracts and grants show who pays the company.

   • CourtListenerfreeacct optionalossapidetails
   • judyrecordsfreedetails
   • PACERpaidacct reqdetails
   • USAspendingfreeossapidatasetdetails

   → can yield: ☺Real name ▤Company

6. 06

   Digital footprint and staff

   Find the company's domains (reverse WHOIS on the registrant email) and staff, then work out the corporate email format to enumerate addresses.

   • Whoxyfreemiumacct optionalapidetails
   • BuiltWithfreemiumacct optionalapiextensiondetails
   • Hunterfreemiumacct reqapiextensiondetails
   • CrossLinkedfreeossclidetails

   → can yield: ◎Domain ✉Email ☺Real name