Customer Due Diligence
You put your business and directors at risk by making assumptions about potential business partners. These risks have become even more important because of increasingly complex business regulations worldwide, mounting pressure from regulators, enforcement agencies and civil society, and a dramatic increase in levels of business carried out in higher risk jurisdictions.
Ashtree provides an enhanced due diligence service when you need to know more. Through Know Your Customer, we will ensure compliance with anti-bribery and corruption regulations including Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and Anti Money Laundering (AML) checks.
For available jurisdictions, our analysts review U.S. and international public records databases to verify customer identities, addresses, and any criminal or financial histories that may pose a higher risk for fraud. We take special care to use a potential customer’s personally identifiable information (PII) to filter out false-positive name matches using intelligence-based research methodologies.
We screen over 1.4 million politically exposed persons (PEP) profiles to identify a customer’s service to a public function or ties to politically exposed individuals that, by virtue of their position and influence, may present a higher risk for corrupt activity. Our Customer Due Diligence services additionally go a step further in screening open web and social media sources for further evidence of political exposure.
Our analysts review over 800 sanctions and watch lists to uncover any previous financial sanctions, debarments, or warrants issued against a potential customer. The sanctions and watch lists screened include the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) list, Department of State lists, Directorate of Trade Controls, Consolidated List of Debarred Parties, Most Wanted lists, and many others.
Ashtree searches international, federal, state, and county court databases to discover a potential customer’s previous criminal history or any ongoing litigation. Our analysts consult both public records and open web court documents to verify information in primary sources. If necessary, we also dispatch court runners to review physical records and ensure data accuracy.
Using specially-created search strings that screen for keywords related to fraud, corruption, and bribery, our analysts consult databases comprising over 26,000 global media sources to find any negative references to a potential customer in the press that may be indicative of a troubling pattern of behavior. When necessary, our analysts also supplement this research with open web global media research.