Sanctions Domain

Overview#

A financial intelligence analyst is building a case against a suspected sanctions evader. She runs the subject's name and known aliases through the Sanctions domain, which queries multiple global sanctions lists simultaneously using fuzzy matching to catch transliterations and name variations. Within seconds she has a ranked list of potential matches, each with a confidence score and the exact fields that triggered the hit. She also runs the subject's cryptocurrency wallet addresses to check for exposure to sanctioned entities in the digital asset space. The module records the entire screening session, results, and disposition decisions in an audit trail that satisfies the organisation's regulatory obligations. Sanctions screening in Argus is powered by OpenSanctions, providing comprehensive coverage of international designations.

Key Features#

Entity Screening: Screen individuals, organisations, and vessels against global sanctions lists with configurable match thresholds and fuzzy matching to catch name variations and transliterations.
Blockchain Address Screening: Analyse cryptocurrency wallet addresses for sanctions exposure, helping identify transactions involving sanctioned entities in the digital asset space.
Multi-Source Screening: Query multiple sanctions data sources in a single operation to provide comprehensive coverage across international sanctions regimes and watchlists, powered by OpenSanctions.
Compliance Reporting: Generate structured compliance reports documenting screening results, match details, and disposition decisions to satisfy regulatory audit requirements.
Continuous Monitoring: Set up ongoing monitoring for entities of interest so that new sanctions designations are automatically flagged when they match previously screened subjects.
Audit Trail: Maintain a complete record of all screening activities, results, and decisions for regulatory review and internal compliance documentation.
Match Scoring: Each potential match includes a confidence score and detailed match rationale, enabling analysts to quickly assess and prioritise results.

Use Cases#

Sanctions screening is a compliance requirement across multiple sectors. Primary industries include financial services and banking, trade and shipping, and defence contracting.

Financial Investigation: Screen subjects of financial investigations against sanctions lists to identify potential violations and inform case strategy.
Due Diligence: Perform sanctions checks as part of organisational due diligence processes for new relationships, transactions, or partnerships.
Cryptocurrency Analysis: Identify sanctioned wallet addresses in blockchain investigations to trace illicit fund flows and support enforcement actions.
Regulatory Compliance: Meet screening obligations under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations with documented, auditable processes.

Integration#

The Sanctions domain connects with other platform modules for comprehensive screening:

Investigation Management: Screening results link to active investigations for case context
Profile Management: Entity profiles can be automatically screened upon creation
Threat Intelligence: Sanctions data enriches threat assessments
Reporting: Compliance reports feed into broader organisational reporting

Open Standards#

FollowTheMoney (FtM) data model: Bulk sanctions data is ingested in the FollowTheMoney newline-delimited JSON format published by OpenSanctions, with entity schemas (Person, Organisation, CryptoWallet, Vessel) mapped directly from the FtM ontology.
OpenSanctions open dataset: The screening database is populated from the OpenSanctions open dataset, which aggregates designations from OFAC, EU, UN Security Council, UK HMT, Canada DFATD, Australia DFAT, Interpol, FBI, and World Bank debarment lists under a unified open licence.
FATF Recommendations (AML/CFT): The audit trail, disposition recording, and Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) screening capabilities are designed to satisfy obligations arising from the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.
UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR 1267/1373/2253): Designated entities listed under the UN consolidated sanctions regime are screened as a first-class source, enabling compliance with binding Security Council measures targeting Al-Qaeda, ISIL, and related networks.
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3: Three-letter country codes are stored against each sanctioned entity's nationality and jurisdiction fields, enabling standardised cross-source country normalisation and filtering.
GraphQL (June 2018 specification): All screening queries, bulk-sync mutations, and investigation-linking operations are exposed through a typed GraphQL API built with Strawberry, allowing structured, introspectable access to sanctions data.
Newline-Delimited JSON (NDJSON): Bulk data downloads from OpenSanctions are streamed and parsed as newline-delimited JSON, enabling memory-efficient incremental ingestion of datasets containing millions of entities.

Last Reviewed: 2026-02-09 Last Updated: 2026-04-14