Financial Intelligence
Beneficial Owner
A beneficial owner is the natural person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity such as a company, trust, or foundation, regardless of whose name appears on official documents. Nominee directors, shell companies, and complex corporate structures are often used to obscure beneficial ownership. Identifying beneficial owners is a primary goal of financial OSINT and anti-money laundering investigations.
Related OSINT terms
- Shell CompanyA shell company is a corporation that exists on paper but has no significant assets, operations, or employees. Shell companies…
- Nominee DirectorA nominee director is a person appointed to act as director of a company on behalf of the actual beneficial…
- Offshore EntityAn offshore entity is a company, trust, or foundation registered in a jurisdiction outside the owner's country of residence, often…
- Paradise PapersThe Paradise Papers are 13.4 million documents leaked in 2017 from offshore law firm Appleby and corporate services provider Asiaciti…
- BIC/SWIFT CodeA Bank Identifier Code (BIC), also known as a SWIFT code, is an 8-11 character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies…
- LEI (Legal Entity Identifier)A Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is a 20-character alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies legal entities participating in financial transactions worldwide.…
- KYC (Know Your Customer)Know Your Customer (KYC) is a regulatory requirement for financial institutions and certain businesses to verify the identity of clients…
- Sanctions ScreeningSanctions screening is the process of checking a person, organization, vessel, aircraft or cryptocurrency wallet against published sanctions lists and…
Related Skills
Investigative Skills in Nexus that apply Beneficial Owner to a live case.
- UK Company RegistryExamine official company records, including status, officers, recorded controllers and filings.Pro & Agency
- US Public FilingsReview official filing histories and reported company information for an identified public filer.Pro & Agency
- Offshore Structure ResearchExplore public offshore-record references to entities, officers, intermediaries and addresses without equating inclusion with wrongdoing.Pro & Agency
- Sanctions Ownership ExposureTrace the ownership and control relationships that sources attribute to sanctions and risk-screening candidates, within a bounded search.Pro & Agency
