OFAC SDN · Due-Diligence Research

OFAC SDN Research Dossiers

Hand-curated due-diligence dossiers on individuals on the US Treasury Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list — built for compliance teams, EDD analysts, and KYC reviewers who need more than a yes/no status check before adding a name to an evidence file. Each dossier disambiguates the entity from same-surname siblings and look-alikes, links the underlying OFAC press release and Executive Order, surfaces adverse media, and exports as a tamper-evident PDF.

9 dossiers 4 name clusters Source data: OFAC SDN list (US Treasury) Updated: continuously

Dossier vs. sanctions profile — when to use which

Lighter — Sanctions profile
Sanctions profile page
/sanctions/individuals/<slug>

One auto-generated page per OFAC SDN entry — every individual, entity, vessel, and aircraft on the list.

  • Active SDN status, program, designation date
  • Identity card from the OFAC record
  • Co-designated family + linked-to entities
  • Recent related news from our index
Best for: a 30-second status check — "is this person currently sanctioned?"
Deeper — Research dossier
Research dossier page
/research/sdn/<slug>

A hand-curated, citation-grade research file — produced for high-stakes names where the lighter profile page is not enough.

  • Surname-cluster disambiguation strip — answers "is this my Saab?" in one screen
  • Plain-English "why designated" narrative grounded in OFAC primary sources
  • The actual OFAC press release + underlying Executive Order, deep-linked
  • Curated adverse media + live Google News pull, de-duplicated
  • Corporate-affiliation jumps (OpenCorporates, ICIJ Offshore Leaks, OpenSanctions, Sunbiz, LinkedIn)
  • Tamper-evident PDF export with SHA-256 fingerprint — drop-in for an EDD memo
Best for: producing the evidence file — "build the EDD memo."

Carretero Napolitano cluster

3 dossiers sharing this surname

Saab Moran cluster

3 dossiers sharing this surname

Saab Certain cluster

2 dossiers sharing this surname

Saab Halabi cluster

1 dossier sharing this surname

Frequently asked

Why use this instead of the official OFAC SDN search?

The Treasury SDN search tool gives you the raw record — name, programs, identifiers, "Linked To" line items. It does not disambiguate same-surname designees, link to the press release, surface adverse media, or produce a portable evidence file. These dossiers do all of that, with primary-source citations, in a one-page format you can paste into an EDD memo or hand to a regulator.

How is a dossier different from your existing sanctions profile pages?

The sanctions profile pages exist for every OFAC SDN entry and are auto-generated from the underlying record — ideal for a quick status check. The dossiers are hand-curated for a smaller set of high-stakes names where ambiguity, look-alikes, or public scrutiny justify a deeper file. Where both exist for a person, the profile page links to the dossier and vice versa — they are complementary, not duplicate.

Are these dossiers admissible / suitable for an EDD or compliance memo?

They are intended as a research aid, not as a substitute for primary-source verification. Every claim links back to its source (OFAC entry, press release, executive order, news article); the PDF export carries a SHA-256 content fingerprint so any later modification of the underlying record is detectable. Compliance teams typically attach the dossier PDF as supporting evidence and cite the primary OFAC record as the authoritative source.

Why the surname-cluster grouping?

Two of the most-searched OFAC names — Saab and Carretero — each appear on the SDN list multiple times. Alex Nain Saab Moran (Maduro's frontman) is routinely confused with his siblings and with Tarek William Saab Halabi (Venezuela's sitting Attorney General, no familial relation). Grouping the dossiers by surname makes the disambiguation visible at a glance.

Can I request a dossier on someone not yet listed?

Dossiers are added based on observed search demand and editorial judgment about disambiguation risk. If a name you need is on the OFAC SDN list but does not yet have a dossier, the sanctions profile page for that person is published the same day OFAC adds them, and is fully searchable on this site.

How we build a dossier

Each dossier is assembled from publicly available primary sources. No paywalled data, no leaked records, no unverified claims.

  1. Pull the canonical OFAC SDN record (program, designation date, identifiers, Linked-To set).
  2. Add the matching OFAC press release and the underlying Executive Order as primary sources.
  3. Build the surname-cluster disambiguator from co-listed SDN names, with full identity-card detail on each.
  4. Pull adverse media from Google News (24-hour cache), de-duplicated against curated items.
  5. Generate the plain-English "why designated" narrative from the OFAC primary-source set, using a strict, anti-hallucination prompt.
  6. Compute a SHA-256 content fingerprint of the underlying record so the PDF export is tamper-evident.