Overview

This playbook guides journalists, researchers, and accountability investigators through the process of researching corporate structures, beneficial ownership, financial relationships, and regulatory compliance using publicly available sources.

Audience: Journalists, researchers, financial accountability advocates Application: Corporate accountability reporting, government contractor research, shell company tracing, sanctions screening

Step-by-Step Research Process

Step 1: Corporate Structure and Registration

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/corporate-intelligence/company-registries.md Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tutorials/corporate-intelligence/opencorporates-company-search.md

Start with company registration records: registered agents, officers, directors, registered address, state of incorporation, and subsidiaries. OpenCorporates aggregates filings from 140+ jurisdictions.

Step 2: Beneficial Ownership and Offshore Structures

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/corporate-intelligence/offshore-leaks.md Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tutorials/corporate-intelligence/icij-offshore-leaks-search.md

ICIJ Offshore Leaks database covers the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Pandora Papers, and other major leaks. Search for entities, officers, and intermediaries connected to offshore structures.

FinCEN Beneficial Ownership Registry: The Corporate Transparency Act (2024) created a federal registry of beneficial owners. Access via fincen.gov (authorized requesters only for full database; individual reports available).

Step 3: Sanctions and Politically Exposed Persons

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/corporate-intelligence/sanctions-databases.md Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tutorials/corporate-intelligence/opensanctions-screening-workflow.md

Screen companies and individuals against OpenSanctions (aggregates 200+ sanctions lists), OFAC SDN list, EU consolidated sanctions, and PEP databases.

Step 4: SEC and Financial Filings

For publicly traded US companies:

• EDGAR: sec.gov/edgar — Annual reports (10-K), quarterly reports (10-Q), insider trading (Form 4), beneficial ownership (13D/13G)
• EDGAR full-text search: efts.sec.gov — search filings by keyword
• knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tool-catalog/by-category/corporate.md — additional financial data tools

Step 5: Litigation History

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tutorials/public-records/pacer-court-records-search.md

Federal litigation involving the company: PACER (federal courts), CourtListener (free federal court records), and state court portals for state litigation.

Step 6: Lobbying and Political Influence

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tool-catalog/by-category/lobbying.md Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tutorials/public-records/opensecrets-political-donations.md

LobbyView (lobbyview.org), OpenSecrets (opensecrets.org), and the Senate/House lobbying disclosure databases. Track which legislators and officials the company lobbies and how much it donates.

Step 7: Government Contracts

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/tool-catalog/by-category/procurement.md

USASpending.gov for federal contracts and grants. FPDS (Federal Procurement Data System) for detailed contract awards. State-level spending portals for state contracts.

Step 8: Conduct the Full Investigation Workflow

Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/workflows/corporate-investigation-workflow.md Read: knowledgebase/investigative-tools/methodologies/corporate-investigation-methodology.md

The structured corporate investigation workflow: from initial target identification through entity mapping, financial tracing, and report production.

Tool Summary

Read the relevant category tool pages:

• by-category/corporate.md — company data and registries
• by-category/sanctions.md — sanctions screening
• by-category/leaks.md — leaked data sources
• by-category/trade.md — import/export trade data
• by-category/procurement.md — government contracting

Related Role-Based Playbooks

• Journalist Playbook
• Researcher Playbook
• Attorney Playbook