screen_sanctions
Free screening of a name or entity against official sanctions lists, each fetched from the authority that issues it: the OFAC SDN list from the US Treasury (SDN.CSV plus ALT.CSV for alternate spellings), the EU consolidated financial sanctions list from the European Commission, and the UK Sanctions List from the FCDO. THE UN CONSOLIDATED LIST IS NOT SCREENED -- it carries no licence permitting commercial redistribution, so we do not claim it. ALWAYS check lists_screened on the response: it names the lists that actually ran ON THAT CALL, and a list that failed to load appears in sources_unavailable instead. reason_code is 'partial_screening' whenever any source was unavailable, never 'clear'. Returns screening_status ('hit' | 'clean' | 'candidates' | 'not_screened' -- branch on THIS, not on matched, because matched:false is also false when nothing could be screened), matched: bool, a list of matches with score, program, and source URL, and which lists were screened. Never fabricates a match or a clear -- if no match is found, explicitly names which lists were checked.
EXAMPLE USER QUERIES THAT MATCH THIS TOOL: user: "Screen this vendor before we pay them: ACME Trading LLC, Russia" -> call screen_sanctions({"name": "ACME Trading LLC", "country": "RU", "type": "entity"}) user: "Is Kim Jong-un on the OFAC list?" -> call screen_sanctions({"name": "Kim Jong-un", "country": "KP", "type": "person"}) user: "Run a sanctions check on this person before onboarding" -> call screen_sanctions({"name": "Ivan Petrov", "country": "RU", "type": "person"}) user: "Do a compliance check -- is this company sanctioned?" -> call screen_sanctions({"name": "Mahan Air", "country": "IR", "type": "entity"})
WHEN TO USE: Use before onboarding a counterparty, processing a payment, engaging a vendor, or doing any due-diligence step that requires knowing whether a person or entity appears on official sanctions lists. Essential for agents doing business formation, vendor qualification, payments onboarding, trade compliance, or any workflow where a sanctioned counterparty is a legal or reputational risk. WHEN NOT TO USE: Do not use as a substitute for full KYC/AML screening -- this covers sanctions lists only, not PEP (Politically Exposed Person) databases, adverse media, or credit risk. Do not treat a negative result as a compliance clearance; it is informational only. Do not use for bulk screening of large lists -- each call is a live API query. COST: free within the daily quota, then $0.02 per call LATENCY: ~2000ms
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| name | Yes | Full name of the person or entity to screen, e.g. 'Kim Jong-un' or 'ACME Trading LLC'. Use the most complete name available for best accuracy. | |
| type | No | Optional entity type hint. 'person' for individuals, 'entity' for organizations/companies. Omit to screen both. | |
| country | No | Optional ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code or country name (e.g. 'IR', 'Iran'). It ANNOTATES AND RANKS results; it never removes any. Each EU/UK match carries country_match: true, false, or null when the listing records no country. Nothing is dropped on a mismatch, because the country we hold is the address/nationality on the listing rather than everywhere a party operates - excluding on it would return a clean screen for someone who IS listed. |