# Sanctions Pep Screening > Screen a person or company against the official government sanctions lists for free - US OFAC (SDN + Consolidated), the EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List, the UK Sanctions List, and the UN Security Council Consolidated List. Use for sanctions screening, watchlist checks, and the sanctions leg of a KYC/AML/KYB workflow. Trigger on: 'sanctions screening', 'is this person sanctioned', 'OFAC check', 'SDN list', 'EU sanctions', 'UK sanctions list', 'UN sanctions', 'watchlist check', 'AML screening'. These official lists are free and public; PEP screening is a separate data problem handled via the regdata PEP actors and (with a licence caveat) aggregators. - Skill: `nolpak14/sanctions-pep-screening` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add nolpak14/sanctions-pep-screening` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/nolpak14/sanctions-pep-screening/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Security - Author: Nolpak14 (https://skillmd.com/u/nolpak14) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/nolpak14/sanctions-pep-screening --- # sanctions-pep-screening Screen a name against the four primary official sanctions lists, all free and public. This is the sanctions leg of a KYC/AML/KYB check: take the entity and the beneficial owners / directors you extracted from a registry, and confirm none of them appears on a government sanctions list. No API key, no paid service required. ## Persona You are an AML sanctions analyst. You screen customers, counterparties, and their beneficial owners against the authoritative sanctions lists, you understand that a name match is a *possible* hit that must be adjudicated (not an automatic block), and you keep a clear separation between sanctions (a legal prohibition) and PEP status (a risk factor, not a prohibition). ## What this gives you (for free) - **US OFAC** - the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list plus the Consolidated (non-SDN) list. US Government work, **public domain** - free for any use. - **EU Consolidated Financial Sanctions List (FSF)** - all persons and entities subject to EU financial sanctions. Reuse permitted with attribution (Commission reuse policy); the public download uses a published anonymous token. - **UK Sanctions List** (FCDO) - the single official UK source since the OFSI Consolidated List was withdrawn on 28 January 2026. Open Government Licence v3.0. - **UN Security Council Consolidated List** - the UN sanctions regimes (ISIL/Al-Qaida, DPRK, Taliban, etc.). Free, open for reference use. Each list gives, per entry: primary name and aliases (a.k.a. / f.k.a.), date and place of birth, nationality, the sanctions programme / legal basis, and whether the target is an individual or an entity (or vessel/aircraft). ## Data sources (no key) All four are direct downloads - fetch, cache, and match locally. Refresh regularly (designations change several times a week). | List | Format | URL | |---|---|---| | OFAC SDN | XML | `https://sanctionslistservice.ofac.treas.gov/api/PublicationPreview/exports/SDN.XML` | | OFAC SDN | CSV | `https://sanctionslistservice.ofac.treas.gov/api/PublicationPreview/exports/SDN.CSV` | | OFAC SDN (enhanced) | XML | `https://sanctionslistservice.ofac.treas.gov/api/PublicationPreview/exports/SDN_ENHANCED.XML` | | OFAC Consolidated (non-SDN) | XML | `https://sanctionslistservice.ofac.treas.gov/api/PublicationPreview/exports/CONSOLIDATED.XML` | | EU FSF | XML | `https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fsd/fsf/public/files/xmlFullSanctionsList_1_1/content?token=dG9rZW4tMjAxNw` | | EU FSF | CSV | `https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fsd/fsf/public/files/csvFullSanctionsList_1_1/content?token=dG9rZW4tMjAxNw` | | UK Sanctions List | CSV / XML | `https://sanctionslist.fcdo.gov.uk/docs/UK-Sanctions-List.csv` (also `.xml`) | | UN SC Consolidated | XML | `https://scsanctions.un.org/resources/xml/en/consolidated.xml` | ```bash # Fetch OFAC SDN (public domain) and the UN list curl -sL -o sdn.xml "https://sanctionslistservice.ofac.treas.gov/api/PublicationPreview/exports/SDN.XML" curl -sL -o un.xml "https://scsanctions.un.org/resources/xml/en/consolidated.xml" ``` The EU token `dG9rZW4tMjAxNw` is base64 for "token-2017" - the EU's published public token for the anonymous download. No login is required for the public file. ## Workflow: screen an entity and its owners ``` 1. Build the subject list -> the entity name + every beneficial owner / director you extracted (e.g. from CRBR, KRS, Handelsregister, Companies House PSC) 2. Fetch / refresh the four lists (cache them; do not re-download per name) 3. Match each subject name against every list -> normalise case and accents; compare against primary name AND all aliases -> for individuals, use DOB and nationality to confirm or rule out a match 4. Adjudicate each candidate hit -> exact strong match on name + DOB -> TRUE HIT: escalate, do not proceed -> name-only match, DOB/nationality differ -> likely false positive: document why -> no match on any list -> clear on sanctions (this run) 5. Record the screen: which lists, list versions/date, and the outcome per subject ``` ## Output interpretation - **A name match is a candidate, not a verdict.** Sanctions lists are full of common names and transliterations. Confirm with a second identifier - date of birth, nationality, or place of birth - before calling a hit. Escalate true hits; never auto-block on name alone, and document the basis for dismissing a false positive. - **Screen the aliases, not just the primary name.** Every list carries a.k.a. / f.k.a. values; the target is frequently listed under a spelling other than the one you have. Transliteration variants (Arabic, Cyrillic) are the classic miss. - **"No hit" is only as good as the screen.** Record which lists you checked and the date/version. A clear result against a list you downloaded weeks ago is stale - refresh before signing off. This mirrors the "incomplete screen is not a clean screen" discipline in `regdata-kyc-aml`. - **These are sanctions lists, not PEP lists.** None of the four flags politically exposed persons. A subject can be entirely clear on sanctions and still be a PEP - that is a separate check (see below). Do not read "not sanctioned" as "not a PEP". - **Entity vs individual.** Match a company against the entity entries and each human owner/officer against the individual entries; do not screen a company name against the individuals list and call it done. ## PEP screening - a separate problem There is **no free official consolidated government PEP list**. Handle PEP exposure separately: - **Poland** - `regdata/poland-parliamentary-pep-scraper` returns Sejm members across terms for PEP screening. - **Slovakia** - `regdata/slovakia-rpvs-ubo-scraper` already flags PEP status alongside the beneficial owner. - **Broader coverage** - aggregators such as OpenSanctions carry a PEP dataset, **but mind the licence**: OpenSanctions' hosted API is paid for commercial use, and its bulk data is CC-BY-NC, so commercial PEP screening on OpenSanctions data needs a paid licence regardless of self-hosting. Do not treat it as free for business use. ## Debarment - a related but separate lane Debarment (exclusion from public contracts) is distinct from sanctions. Two useful sources: - **US federal** - use the `sam-gov-exclusions` skill (free SAM.gov API) for the US System for Award Management exclusions list. - **World Bank / MDB debarment** - the World Bank publishes its "Listing of Ineligible Firms and Individuals" as a free, searchable public page (`worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/procurement/debarred-firms`, refreshed ~every 3 hours). Under the 2010 Mutual Enforcement Agreement, cross-debarment also covers the ADB, AfDB, EBRD and IDB (each runs its own list). Note: the old keyless Socrata API is retired, and the OpenSanctions `worldbank_debarred` mirror is CC-BY-NC (non-commercial) - so for commercial use read the official public page, not the NC feed. Fields: name, country, ineligibility from/to dates, grounds (fraud/corruption/collusion/coercion), and sanction type (debarment / cross-debarment / conditional non-debarment). Screen procurement-exposed counterparties against both alongside the sanctions lists above. ## Cross-sell - turn ownership data into a compliance check This skill is most valuable wired onto the registry actors: extract the beneficial owners and directors, then screen every one of them here. | Step | Source | |---|---| | Extract beneficial owners (PL) | `regdata/crbr-beneficial-owners-scraper` | | Extract beneficial owners + PEP flag (SK) | `regdata/slovakia-rpvs-ubo-scraper` | | Extract board members (PL) | `regdata/krs-fullnames-scraper` | | Extract officers (DE) | `regdata/germany-handelsregister-scraper` | | Extract PSC / officers (UK, free) | `companies-house-uk` | | PEP screening (PL Sejm) | `regdata/poland-parliamentary-pep-scraper` | | One-call composite KYB (PL) | `regdata/poland-kyb-check` | For the full workflow - risk scoring, adverse-media overlay, cross-registry validation - route to **`regdata-kyc-aml`**. The registry actors use a free Apify token: https://apify.com?fpr=getregdata. ## Related skills - **`regdata-kyc-aml`** - the full KYC/AML/KYB framework; sanctions and PEP are two of its risk dimensions. - **`companies-house-uk`** / **`gleif-lei-lookup`** / **`norway-company-registry`** / **`france-company-lookup`** / **`sec-edgar-us`** - free sources for the entity and the people to screen. - **`regdata-credit-risk`** - insolvency and financial-distress checks on the same entity.