What is this

Basic reader and searcher for entities and individuals on the EU, UN and OFAC sanction lists.

See */reader.py for basic read methods
See eu/searcher.py#search for a basic search method

How to run it

Requires python3, and the pip-modules fuzzywuzzy, Fuzzy, python-Levenshtein, and lxml, installed.

$ cd eu
$ python3 searcher.py

Search method

There are different strategies for achieving this task, and there seems to be a common pattern among vendors for OFAC and other sanction list software implement fuzzy name search.

Procedure:

Pre-compute a mapping of phonetic lookup-keys from normalized names in list sources, split into names-part, to generate a map from KEY (from name-part) -> list of list entry-ids.

Example of normalizing a name, and splitting it into name parts: "Jenny-Margot Åhlen" -> "jenny, margot, ahlen".

First, determine the phonetic lookup-keys from the input name (the query). Then, build a list of candidate list-entry matches using entry-ids from the phonetic lookup-key matches. Filter this list by using a string similarity algorithm, with normalized similarity ratio output. Add or subtract to the similarity ratio depending on various properties, to rank the match up or down. Example: if not all name parts from the query matches all name parts of the list subject, apply a penalty.

Filter matches by applying a user-defined minimum threshold for similarity ratio, e.g. 0.80

References

• https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/SDN-List/Pages/fuzzy_logic.aspx -- see item 4

• https://easyofac.com/#desc –- heading "Layered fuzzy search"