/icij-offshore-leaks

name: icij-offshore-leaks
description: "Search a person or company against the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database for free - the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers, Bahamas Leaks and Offshore Leaks records of offshore entities, officers and intermediaries, for enhanced due diligence. Use for offshore-structure red-flags and the offshore leg of an enhanced-DD / EDD / KYC / AML workflow. Trigger on: 'offshore leaks', 'Panama Papers', 'Pandora Papers', 'Paradise Papers', 'offshore entities', 'is this person in the offshore leaks', 'offshore structure', 'ICIJ', 'shell company search', 'enhanced due diligence'. This is a leak-data red-flag lane, NOT a company registry and NOT proof of wrongdoing - a match is a prompt to dig deeper, never a conclusion; no API key required."
metadata:
  version: 1.0.0
  author: regdata
  tags:
    - free-api
    - due-diligence
    - offshore
    - icij
    - aml
    - edd
  triggers:
    - "offshore leaks search"
    - "Panama Papers lookup"
    - "Pandora Papers lookup"
    - "Paradise Papers lookup"
    - "is this person or company in the offshore leaks"
    - "offshore structure red-flag"
    - "shell company / offshore entity search"
    - "ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database"
    - "enhanced due diligence on offshore exposure"

icij-offshore-leaks

Search a name against the **ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database** - the offshore leg of an enhanced due-diligence (EDD) check. Take the entity and the beneficial owners / directors you extracted from a registry, and ask a single question: does any of them appear in the offshore leaks? This runs on ICIJ's public database aggregating the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers, Bahamas Leaks and the original Offshore Leaks - **free and keyless**. But read the disclaimer below before you read a single result: this is leak data, and appearing in it is a *red flag to investigate*, never a finding of wrongdoing.

> **ICIJ disclaimer (carry this on every output):** "ICIJ does not intend to suggest or imply that any individuals, companies or other entities included in the Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly. There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts."

Persona

You are an enhanced due-diligence analyst running the offshore-structure lane of a screen. You search customers, counterparties, and their beneficial owners for exposure to leaked offshore data, you understand that a name match is a *candidate to verify* - not a hit, and never proof of wrongdoing (ICIJ itself disclaims that reading; there are legitimate reasons to hold an offshore company or trust) - and you keep offshore exposure separate from sanctions, litigation and debarment: distinct data problems that together make one screen.

What this gives you (for free)

• **Entities** - the offshore companies, trusts and foundations named in the leaks: name, jurisdiction of incorporation, linked country, incorporation/struck-off dates, and the source leak.
• **Officers** - the people and companies connected to those entities (shareholders, directors, beneficiaries).
• **Intermediaries** - the go-betweens (law firms, agents, banks) that set up or managed the structures.
• **Addresses** - the registered addresses tying the records together - the key corroborator for confirming a common-name match.

Each record carries which leak it came from (`sourceID`), so you can tell a Panama Papers entity from a Pandora Papers one. This is leak data curated by an investigative-journalism non-profit, **not an official register**.

Licence (free, but attribution + share-alike apply)

The database is released under the **Open Database License (ODbL) v1.0**, and its contents under **CC-BY-SA**. **Commercial use is allowed** (this is *not* a non-commercial licence) - but two obligations attach to any redistribution or derivative:

• **Attribution** - you must cite ICIJ as the source.
• **Share-alike** - a derivative database carries the same ODbL/CC-BY-SA licence.

Using it internally as one EDD signal is fine; publishing a derived dataset triggers the share-alike terms.

Data sources (no key)

Base URL: `https://offshoreleaks.icij.org`

| # | Purpose | Method + path | |---|---|---| | 1 | Reconcile / search by name | `POST /api/v1/reconcile` | | 2 | Node detail (entity/officer/etc.) | `GET /nodes/{id}.json` | | 3 | Bulk download (CSV + Neo4j dumps) | `https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/pages/database` |

The search endpoint is a **W3C Reconciliation Service (v0.2)**. Post `queries` as a map; each query returns ranked candidate matches:

# 1. Search for a name (keyless)
curl -s "https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/api/v1/reconcile" \
  --data-urlencode 'queries={"q0":{"query":"ACME HOLDINGS LIMITED"}}'

# 2. Pull the full record for a matched node id
curl -s "https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12345678.json"

Each reconcile match returns: `id`, `name`, `description` (which leak the record is from), `score`, `match` (a boolean the service sets on a confident single match), and `types[]` - the record type (entity / officer / intermediary / address). You can filter by type in the query. Resolve any `id` to its full record via endpoint 2.

Response fields

• **Identity** - `name` (the entity / officer / intermediary), and the record `type`.
• **Jurisdiction** - the jurisdiction of incorporation plus the linked `countries` / `country_codes`.
• **Source leak** - `sourceID`: one of *Offshore Leaks (2013)*, *Panama Papers (2016)*, *Bahamas Leaks (2016)*, *Paradise Papers (2017)*, *Pandora Papers (2021)*.
• **Status** - `valid_until` (the leak snapshot the record belongs to) and any `categories`.
• **Relationships** - the linked nodes: *officer-of*, *registered-address*, *intermediary-of* - how the person, the company, the address and the agent connect.

Workflow: search an entity and its owners

1. Build the subject list
   -> the entity name + every beneficial owner / director you extracted
      (e.g.