hermes-agent/optional-skills/research/osint-investigation/references/sources/ofac-sdn.md

OFAC SDN — Specially Designated Nationals List

1. Summary

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) publishes the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN). US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with individuals and entities on this list. Also published: non-SDN consolidated lists (BIS Denied Persons, FSE, etc.).

2. Access Methods

• Full XML: https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdn.xml
• Delimited: https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdn.csv
• Consolidated: https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/consolidated/consolidated.xml
• Auth: None
• Rate limit: None (static file downloads). Updated continuously.

3. Data Schema

Key fields emitted by fetch_ofac_sdn.py:

Column	Type	Description
entity_id	int	OFAC unique ID
name	str	Primary name
entity_type	str	individual / entity / vessel / aircraft
program_list	str	Semicolon-separated sanctions programs (e.g. SDGT;IRAN)
title	str	For individuals: title/role
nationalities	str	Semicolon-separated country codes
aka_list	str	Semicolon-separated "also known as" names
addresses	str	Semicolon-separated known addresses
dob	str	Date of birth (individuals)
pob	str	Place of birth (individuals)
remarks	str	OFAC's free-text remarks
last_updated	str	YYYY-MM-DD (publication date)

4. Coverage

• Worldwide — all entities sanctioned by US Treasury
• ~10,000 entries on SDN, ~15,000 on consolidated lists
• Updated continuously (sometimes daily during active enforcement)
• Includes AKAs (very common, can be 10+ per entity)

5. Cross-Reference Potential

• SEC EDGAR ↔ name (public companies sanctioned)
• USAspending ↔ name (sanctioned entity as federal contractor — should be impossible but verify)
• ICIJ Offshore ↔ name (offshore entities also sanctioned)

Join key: normalized name. CRITICAL: must match against aka_list too. Many sanctioned entities are caught only via aliases.

6. Data Quality

• Names are transliterated from many scripts — multiple romanizations possible
• AKAs often differ wildly from primary name
• Some entries have minimal info (no DOB, no address) for individuals
• Free-text remarks contain critical context — read them
• "Specially Designated Global Terrorists" (SDGT) and "Cyber-related" (CYBER2) programs add and remove entries frequently

7. Acquisition Script

Path: scripts/fetch_ofac_sdn.py

# Full snapshot
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_ofac_sdn.py --out data/ofac_sdn.csv

# Filter to specific program
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_ofac_sdn.py --program SDGT --out data/sdn_sdgt.csv

# Entities only (skip individuals, vessels, aircraft)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_ofac_sdn.py --entity-type entity --out data/sdn_entities.csv

8. Legal & Licensing

• Public record under Executive Order authority and statutory sanctions programs
• US persons MUST screen against this list — it is enforced
• No restrictions on the data itself; restrictions are on transactions with the listed entities
• ZERO penalty for "over-matching" — false positives must be cleared but are not prohibited

9. References

• OFAC home: https://ofac.treasury.gov/
• SDN list: https://ofac.treasury.gov/specially-designated-nationals-and-blocked-persons-list-sdn-human-readable-lists
• Data formats: https://ofac.treasury.gov/sdn-list/sanctions-list-search-tool
• Compliance guidance: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions