Mapping offshore structures through secrecy jurisdictions

Independent investigative journalist, OSINT practitioner and digital forensics educator; chapter author in Eyewitness Textures (MQUP, 2024).

Offshore structure investigation maps the corporate vehicles used in secrecy jurisdictions to conceal the source, ownership, or movement of funds: shell companies, nominee-held trusts, foundations, and protected cell companies registered in low-transparency jurisdictions. The primary identifier is a mismatch between the economic substance of the entity and its declared purpose or location. Cross-referencing leaked offshore records with public registries and beneficial ownership declarations resolves entity clusters into named individuals.

The method applies when tracing the ultimate beneficial owner of a secrecy-jurisdiction entity, identifying whether a politically exposed person has undisclosed offshore holdings, cross-referencing declared ownership against leaked service provider records, establishing whether a transaction chain passes through a jurisdiction with no economic substance requirements, or mapping the asset-holding structure behind a confiscation proceeding. A leaked offshore record is Alleged by default. Each entity in isolation is ambiguous. The ownership structure, corroborated from a public registry entry, is not.

FIN-003 sets out the methodology for investigating, mapping, and documenting offshore corporate structures to evidentiary standard.

A four-page PDF of FIN-003 is below for Signal subscribers.