OpenCorporates

Yesterday, Companies House published their first strategic intelligence assessment, and if we’re being honest, we were rather blown away by it. OpenCorporates Founder Chris Taggart has put out a full response 👉 https://lnkd.in/eydVKGMq Here are some of his observations: 👉 Five years ago, OpenCorporates wrote an article called Fireflies and Algorithms, that warned of a future where company formation was done programmatically, and at scale. That future is clearly now here, based on some of the cases in the report (e.g. "Eleven thousand limited companies were incorporated and VAT-registered to a residential flat"). 👉 As we wrote a couple of days ago, the current penalties issued by company registers are meaningless in such cases – at best treated by criminals as a cost of doing business, and more likely unenforceable, given the perpetrators are either unidentifiable, or in jurisdictions out of the reach of the authorities in the country affected. Most of the cases identified are successful criminal schemes, as the sanction was closing the company, not recovery of the money nor imprisonment of the criminals. 👉 Criminals are rational actors, and should be treated as such. If someone is incorporating thousands of legal entities, it's not for the LOLs. If you haven't found the fraud, it's because it's too sophisticated, or involving different jurisdictions or domains. 👉 Many of the schemes will be cross-border, but there is no real recognition of this. If the legal entities are created and controlled by legal entities in other jurisdictions, there seems little likelihood of Companies House identifying this, and the UK is in fact an enabler of many such schemes through the opacity of the Overseas Territories such as Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands. 👉 The consequences for societies are real, and serious. There's real money at stake here, and real lives destroyed, and often it's the governments being defrauded, either from tax fraud schemes or grants and loans, both of which are cited in the report. And lest you think this is a UK problem, in April, the GAO estimated that between $230 billion and $530 billion *a year* was paid out by the Federal Government in fraud and wrongful payments. Much of this would have used legal entities as the vehicles for the fraud. 👉 The 'enablers' who facilitate this activity need to be a focus for the authorities, with jail time for those who profit from it. 👉 A week or so ago, Companies House laid out a timeline for implementing the Economic Crime & Corporate Transparency Act. They need to see if that can be accelerated in light of this report. 👉 We now live in a generative AI world. This needs to inform Companies House in its work and processes. It will make identity verification harder, and programmatic formation easier. #CompaniesHouse #FinancialCrime #Fraud #AI

Don’t miss CRF Qatar 2024! OpenCorporates Founder, Chris Taggart, will be on the panel discussion about the role of legal entity identifiers 🔥 Corporate Registers Forum is all about helping registry professionals share ideas, benchmark their performance, and gain access to specialist experience. Tickets in the post below 👇 #CRFQatar2024

Last week, the Business Registry Insights group published a report on penalties issued by company registers. OpenCorporates founder Chris Taggart has shared his thoughts in the article below. 🔥 Highlights 🔥 Not all jurisdictions responded - only 22 of the 52 US core jurisdictions replied, including no response from Delaware, Wyoming, or New York. Many traditional offshore jurisdictions like the Caymans and BVI also remained silent, hinting that some jurisdictions are trying to avoid comparisons. Many registers have no powers to sanction incorrect filings, even fraudulent ones. And when fines exist, they’re often ineffective against entities laundering millions. Instead, we must make it harder to create companies for criminal purposes - starting with verification of those behind the filings. Read the full article here 👉 https://lnkd.in/d6fZ5_Tr #CompanyRegisters #Penalties #FinancialCrime #Fraud

Shell companies help people dodge billions in taxes every year. The EU Tax Observatory released a note that used OpenCorporates data to uncover where these hidden companies are operating. It’s a big problem with real consequences for all of us. Read our latest blog to learn more about this issue. 👉 https://lnkd.in/e75PQD47 #Transparency #ShellCompanies #CompanyData 

Join our webinar on unlocking insights with US branch data! 🇺🇸 🔑 🔓 What You’ll Learn: ✅ Spot key trends like geographic expansion, industry growth, & corporate restructuring. ✅ Real-world applications for compliance, risk monitoring, & business intelligence. ✅ A live demo on how OpenCorporates can uncover game-changing insights for your team. With speakers: Chris Taggart, Founder | OpenCorporates Nick Wright, VP of Data | OpenCorporates Jennifer Miller, VP of Sales | OpenCorporates 📅 Date: November 14, 2024 ⏰ Time: 4pm GMT (1 hour) Register now to secure your spot 👉 https://lnkd.in/eDABSC9s #webinar #businessintelligence #compliance #riskmanagement #branchdata

🚀 Exciting Changes at OpenCorporates 🚀 We’re happy to announce that Wojtek Kokoszka is our new CEO! Wojtek helped grow Zappi into a $100 million company, and now he’s bringing his talent for scaling and innovation to OpenCorporates, as we keep expanding the world’s largest open database of company information. Chris Taggart, our co-founder and outgoing CEO, isn’t going far - he’ll be focusing on new markets and big-picture opportunities in his new role. Together, Wojtek and Chris will be driving our mission forward, making company data open, transparent, and accessible to everyone. Learn more about Wojtek by reading the full Press Release here 👉 https://lnkd.in/esyTUk4w Here’s to the next chapter 🚀 #OpenCorporates #CEO #CorporateTransparency

We couldn’t pass up the chance to rub shoulders with the rest of the governance, risk and compliance community at #RISK London 2024 🚀 Huge thank you to all the amazing speakers and panelists, and of course GRC World Forums for bringing us all together 👏 #AI #Privacy #Security #RegTech

In the OSINT game, you’re only as good as the tools you use. Ever wondered how the world renowned investigators at Bellingcat do it? Well, now you don’t have to, because they just shared an updated version of their Online Investigations Toolkit. Check it out now, and see if you can spot yours truly 😉 👉 https://lnkd.in/ejgp-G8n #Investigations #Transparency #OSINT

We're up for 'Best Entity Data Solution' and we think we've got what it takes to take home the trophy 🏆 If you agree, cast your vote today 👇 1️⃣ Visit the A-Team Insight, from A-Team Group's page by clicking on this link: https://lnkd.in/dMJJN-CQ 2️⃣ Scroll to '5. Best Entity Data Solution' 3️⃣ Select our name and submit your vote Voting closes for the #DMIAwards at 5pm (UK) time on Friday the 4th of October!

Transparency International UK uncovered some serious red-flags in Covid-19 contracts, including political connections and VIP fast lanes for the well-connected 🚩 Out of the £48.1 billion spent, a third of it could be better described as a wild shopping spree than a carefully managed crisis response. That’s billions of pounds worth of PPE that ended up being about as useful as a chocolate teapot. It’s a sobering reminder that transparency really is our best line of defence against corruption. OpenCorporates was used to help clean company records, and we're proud to have contributed to such an important investigation. Check out the full article below, and let’s keep the conversation going so nothing like this ever happens again. 👉 https://lnkd.in/dxpTyjDG #Transparency #PublicTrust #CrisisManagement #COVID19 #Corruption