General description of Go!Scan lists

Go!Scan is used to match identities to an aggregated list of special interest persons and entities. This aggregated list comes from external providers such as DowJones, one of Algoreg’s partner.

Aggregated list content

Algoreg relies on external providers to get a complete and aggregated list of sanctioned (SAN), politically exposed (PEP), special interest (SIP/SIE), media exposed (Watchlist) or relative or close associate (RCA) persons and entities.

This aggregated list is by default provided by Dow Jones and contains more than 3 million names extracted from dozens of officials and non-officials lists. You can request a list of the lists included in the aggregated list. In appendix A you can see the different types of records handled by our providers.

List update

On a daily basis, Algoreg downloads the incremental changes of the provider’s aggregated list, except on the first day of every month where the full list is downloaded.

Algoreg only pulls files and never sends information about our clients or our clients’ customers to our external provider.

See appendix B for more details about our daily process.

Alerts closing and re-opening

On a daily basis we generate alerts about potential matches. Human agents (not provided by Algoreg except in the Go!Team offer) review these alerts and can decide to discard some of them. In this case the alert will not be displayed again in the future until the record changes on the aggregated list (a record change can be a change of political status, a change of name, nationality, etc).

Alerts categories

Lists

• Watchlist - Default governments watchlists

• SOC - State-Owned Companies (optional list)

• AME - Adverse Medias Entities (optional list)

Level 1 categories

• PEP - Politically Exposed Person

• SIP - Special Interest Person

• SIE - Special Interest Entity

• SOE - State-Owned Entity You must have access to the SOC list

• SOP - State-Owned Person You must have access to the SOC list

• RCA - Relative or Close Associate It can be related to any of the previous items, RCA SOP, RCA SIE and so on.

PEP Categories

Click on the category to see description, descriptions are computed from our watchlists provider Dow Jones.

Heads & Deputies State/National Government

Presidents, Premiers, Chancellors, Prime Ministers and their deputies and royal heads of state can be found in this category.

National Government Ministers

This category contains a country’s government ministers, e.g., Minister of Finance, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Secretary of Defense (U.S.).

Members of the National Legislature

This category contains members of the bodies/assemblies making up the national legislature – whether unicameral, bicameral, tricameral, e.g., members of the House of Commons (lower house) and House of Lords (upper house) for the U.K., House of Representatives and Senate for the U.S., members of the State Duma and Federal Council for Russia, the Bundestag and Bundesrat for Germany and the Nationalrat and Ständerat for Switzerland.

Senior Civil Servants–National Government

This category contains the uppermost levels of the civil service. It contains those in the position of Permanent Secretary in the U.K., Staatssekretär in Germany, Deputy Secretary in the U.S. or equivalent, that is the top level tier in the civil service, plus the next level down (this is Director General level in the U.K.). As a general rule, deputy government ministers such as Deputy Minister of Finance, First Deputy Minister of Transport are to be found in this category.

This approach works for countries where structured information is available. For other countries, where Watchlist relies on news coverage only, names and occupation titles may arise in the press and it is difficult to assess the exact seniority of the individual. If they seem suitably senior, they will be included on Watchlist.

Senior Civil Servants–Regional Government

This category contains the uppermost levels of the regional civil service. Titles vary depending on the country concerned, but include those like State Secretary for a particular region, General Secretary, Director. Getting data for the uppermost tiers of regional civil service works for countries where structured information is available. For other countries, where Watchlist relies on news coverage only, names may arise in the press and it is difficult to assess the exact seniority of the individual. If they seem suitably senior, they will be included on Watchlist.

Please note not all countries have what would be classified as a regional civil service system and so not all countries will have entries in this category.

Embassy and Consular Staff

Watchlist aims to cover the top two positions at a country’s foreign representations and the top position at a country’s consulates. Roles included on Watchlist are: Ambassador, Deputy Head of Mission, Chargé d'Affaires, Consul General.

A country’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. and other international organisations also come under this category.

Please note Honorary Consuls are not covered in Watchlist.

Senior Members of the Armed Forces

Watchlist covers the top post holders for the army, navy and air forces. Positions such as Chief of General Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff, Commander are included. In addition, Watchlist follows the structure of the country’s armed forces and ensures the coverage of all the roles that are deemed senior within that structure.

This approach works for countries where structured information is available. For other countries, where Watchlist relies on news coverage only, names may arise in the press and it is difficult to assess the exact seniority of the individual. If their role seems suitably senior, they will be included on Watchlist. People of lesser rank in some countries have a significant role; often it is the role rather than the military rank that is important.

Where available (this tends to be for developed countries) Watchlist includes the military rank and job title by putting the job title in Occupation Title with rank in the title field.

For less developed countries or where less information is available, the only details available for Watchlist might be the military rank in which case it will go into the Occupation Title.

Senior Members of the Police Services

Watchlist aims to include the chief of the national police and the chief of regional police forces as a minimum for each country. For some countries where information is more readily available Watchlist has been able to extend coverage.

Senior Members of the Secret Services

This category contains the names of senior members of the secret services/intelligence community as available in directories/press/government websites. The nature of this role means there are unlikely to be many entries in this particular category for each country.

Senior Members of the Judiciary

Watchlist contains details of judges from a country’s highest judicial bodies, such as supreme courts, high courts, constitutional courts.

State Corporation Executives

This category contains senior executives (including all board members) of corporations that are directly majority owned by the national government, operate in key industries at a national level and are not subsidiaries. These profiles carry an additional Description, Board Member.

State Agency Officials

This category contains top officials at the main state agencies including central banks, financial market supervisors and other regulatory bodies.

Heads & Deputy Heads of Regional Government

Regional/state prime ministers, presidents, premiers, governors, chief ministers and their deputies are to be found in this category.

Regional Government Ministers

This category contains ministers in regional government, where these exist. Not all countries have regional governments and so not all countries will have entries in this category.

Religious Leaders

This category contains leaders of major faith traditions.

Political Party Officials

This category contains leaders, deputy leaders, directors and members of the national councils/executives/boards of political parties with representation in national parliaments.

International Organisation Officials

This category contains leaders and senior officials of international organisations, e.g., the United Nations, European Union, Organization of American States, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, World Trade Organization and North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

City Mayors

This category contains the mayors of capitals, regional capitals and major large cities (those with a population of over 100,000).

Political Pressure and Labour Group Officials

This category contains leaders and senior officials of major interest groups that seek to influence public policy and legislation in relation to their particular priorities, for example major national labour groups, trade unions and employers’ associations.

Other

The use of this occupational category is defined on a country-by-country basis and the roles included are those that are considered senior within a certain region/country but do not have an equivalent in others. Some examples of roles included here are:

• Political power brokers for a particular country but for whom no general global occupation category applies, for example, tribal chiefs in certain African countries.

Local Public Officials

This category is for officials defined by official national PEP regulations but who fall outside any of the existing Watchlist Occupation Categories. Examples would be Members of Regional Parliaments and Members of Local Councils. This category is not populated for every country on Watchlist as only a limited number of countries have defined local public officials in their national PEP regulations.

International Sporting Organisation Officials

This category contains senior officials of the International Olympic Committee and executives from international sporting organisations representing official Olympic sports, e.g., FIFA, FIBA and the International Golf Federation. Coverage of this category began in January 2012.

SIE/SIP Categories

Click on the category to see description, descriptions are computed from our watchlists provider Dow Jones.

Sanctions lists

The Sanctions Lists category includes lists of persons and entities subject to comprehensive or targeted restrictive measures. People and entities are added to Sanctions Lists for various reasons, including: having links to terrorism, terrorist financing, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, arms trafficking, narco-trafficking or war crimes. Such lists are issued by government agencies or bodies, including Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), regulators or police, and are government instructions that regulated institutions have a legal obligation to screen against. Examples of the effects of Sanctions Lists include the freezing of funds and economic resources, admission restrictions on certain persons, arms embargoes, trade/export restrictions and a ban on the provision of certain services to certain countries.

Other Official Lists

The Other Official Lists category includes lists of persons and entities, including vessels, associated with one or more of the categories of potentially high-risk activities listed below:

• Advisories

• Enforcement Orders

• Visa/Travel Ban

• Exclusion List

• Law Enforcement

• Trade Restrictions

• War Crimes

• Warnings

War Crimes

War Crimes content is taken from official list sources only. All war crimes-related Lists are categorised as either Sanctions Lists or Other Official Lists. Additionally, each profile contains the extra category of War Crimes. These lists contain the names of people who have been formally charged with war crimes. They may be in custody or at large. Such lists are generally published by foreign affairs ministries, international or special courts or attorney-general's offices.

Corruption

Corruption covers cases where those in a public position have allegedly abused that position and are reported to have been arrested on suspicion of, charged with or convicted of corrupt activities. Such cases might typically involve allegations of bribery, kickbacks or breach of trust. The category covers those involved in scandals such as Lava Jato (Car Wash) in Brazil and also features various current and former heads of state, for example Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Park Geun-hye of South Korea.

Financial Crime

Financial Crime covers activities such as fraud, theft, money laundering and tax evasion. The reported criminal activity may be of the same type as that in the Corruption category but is committed by private individuals rather than people in public positions.

Organised Crime

Organised Crime covers crime reported as being carried out by criminal gangs and organisations.

Trafficking

Trafficking covers the illegal trafficking or smuggling of narcotics, firearms, people, wildlife or commodities such as diamonds.

Terror

Terror contains individuals arrested on suspicion of, charged with or convicted of acts relating to terrorism. The category covers those associated with or inspired by known, established or significant terrorist organisations, although not necessarily acting directly on their behalf. Coverage includes financing of terrorist acts or organisations.

Tax Crime

Tax Crime, which was introduced in April 2014, is applied to individuals who are reported to have committed a tax-related offence. The category covers offences such as tax fraud and tax evasion. It is never used on its own and is always applied in conjunction with another category. Tax Crime has been added retrospectively to SIP profiles created before April 2014 whose profile notes contain the keywords tax evasion, tax fraud, tax crime and fiscal crime

Sanctions Control and Ownership

Profiles categorised as State-Owned Companies are given the additional categorisation of Sanctions Control and Ownership if they are owned in whole or in part (or have been owned in whole or in part since 1 January 2015) by the government of countries or regions which were subject to comprehensive sanctions imposed either by OFAC or by the EU.

Relative or Close Associate (RCA) Types

Relatives may include their spouse, siblings, children, parents, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, step-children, and others.

Close associates are individuals who have a strong personal or professional connection with a politically exposed person (PEP).

It is important to verify all relationships using reliable, publicly available sources.

Next articles

• Political power brokers where a global occupation category could be applied, but who are exercising their occupation in a territory that is not recognized by the majority of countries as an independent country, for example, the Nagorno-Karabakh Government in Azerbaijan.