SKILL / Business & Risk
Plans: Pro & AgencyOffshore Structure Research
Explore public offshore-record references to entities, officers, intermediaries and addresses without equating inclusion with wrongdoing.
Read the step-by-step user guideOffshore Structure Research answers the question of whether a name, company or address appears in public offshore records and what relationships those records document. Nexus explores published offshore datasets, including the ICIJ Offshore Leaks investigations such as the Panama Papers, for references to entities, officers, intermediaries and addresses, and maps the connections the records describe between them. The Skill is built for due diligence and investigative reporting where an offshore structure may be relevant.
What you get
A relationship summary of public offshore-record references to entities, officers, intermediaries and addresses.
Using Offshore Structure Research in an investigation
The investigator receives a relationship summary. Each matching record is shown with its role in the dataset — entity, officer, intermediary or address — the connections the records document, the jurisdictions involved and the dates where recorded. Nexus separates exact matches from name-only candidates and keeps every link attributed to the record it came from. Inclusion in a dataset is presented as a reference to be examined, never as an indication of wrongdoing.
Entities, officers and addresses from the summary can be added to the relationship graph, where they may connect to officers from UK Company Registry, candidates from Sanctions, PEP and Risk Screening or events in a News and Adverse-Media Timeline. Cross-Entity Correlation then tests whether the same person or address recurs across these records with supporting evidence. Findings and their sources carry into the case brief and PDF report.
Example objectives
Run the Skill directly, or describe the objective in your own words — these are the kinds of questions it is built to answer.
Ask Nexus
“Does this company name or its known director appear in public offshore records, and which intermediaries and addresses are linked?”
Ask Nexus
“Map the offshore entities associated with this registered address and show the officers each record names.”
Ask Nexus
“Which of these name matches are supported by matching addresses or dates, and which are only similar names?”
How Offshore Structure Research fits the investigation
A Skill is one move inside a case. The findings stay in the case file, where the evidence behind them can be checked, graphed and reported.
- 01
Choose or describe
Pick the Skill from the Skill Library, or describe the objective in your own words and let Nexus work out which Skills fit the question.
- 02
Review the evidence
Open the evidence record behind any finding and read the original public source before you rely on what it says.
- 03
Add to the case graph
Promote the people, organizations and identifiers you accept into the case relationship graph, straight from their evidence records.
- 04
Brief and report
Turn the case into a BLUF situation brief and, on Pro and Agency, into a structured PDF report with chain of custody.
Evidence before conclusions
What Offshore Structure Research cannot establish
Nexus keeps supported findings, possible matches, contradictions and information gaps apart instead of blending them into one narrative. These are the boundaries Offshore Structure Research states up front.
- Appearing in a public offshore dataset is not evidence of illegality, beneficial ownership or current control. Many entries describe lawful, dormant or long-dissolved structures.
- The records are historical snapshots from specific investigations. A name match needs corroboration, and an absence of matches says nothing about structures outside those datasets or created after them.
- Common names return many candidates; Nexus flags which are supported by matching addresses, dates or co-officers and which remain unresolved.
Best for
Teams that reach for Offshore Structure Research most often.
Related OSINT concepts
The vocabulary this Skill works in, defined in the glossary.
Related Skills
Skills investigators commonly run next, in the same case.
Frequently asked questions
What does Offshore Structure Research search?
Offshore Structure Research explores public offshore datasets, including the ICIJ Offshore Leaks material such as the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers and Pandora Papers, for references to entities, officers, intermediaries and addresses. Nexus returns the matching records with the relationships they document, the jurisdictions involved and the dates recorded, and attributes every link to its record so the investigator can inspect the original reference.
Does appearing in offshore records mean a person or company did something wrong?
Offshore Structure Research treats inclusion in a public offshore dataset as a reference to examine, not as a finding of wrongdoing. Offshore entities are used lawfully for many purposes, and many records describe dormant or dissolved structures. Nexus presents each match with its role, dates and documented connections, and leaves the assessment of what the reference means to the investigator.
How does Offshore Structure Research handle a common name?
A common name produces many candidate records. Offshore Structure Research lists each candidate separately and marks which are supported by additional detail, such as a matching address, jurisdiction, date or co-officer already known to the case, and which rest on the name alone. Nexus does not merge candidates on similarity, so the investigator can dismiss weak matches with a recorded reason and pursue supported ones.
Which Nexus plan includes Offshore Structure Research?
Offshore Structure Research is included in the Skill Library on the Pro and Agency plans. Pro unlocks 43 of the 47 investigative Skills, including Offshore Structure Research and the other business, financial and risk Skills, and Agency includes all 47.