OFAC SDN — Specially Designated Nationals List

1. Summary

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) publishes the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN). US persons are generally prohibited from dealing with individuals and entities on this list. Also published: non-SDN consolidated lists (BIS Denied Persons, FSE, etc.).

2. Access Methods

Full XML: https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdn.xml
Delimited: https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdn.csv
Consolidated: https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/consolidated/consolidated.xml
Auth: None
Rate limit: None (static file downloads). Updated continuously.

3. Data Schema

Key fields emitted by fetch_ofac_sdn.py:

Column	Type	Description
`entity_id`	int	OFAC unique ID
`name`	str	Primary name
`entity_type`	str	individual / entity / vessel / aircraft
`program_list`	str	Semicolon-separated sanctions programs (e.g. SDGT;IRAN)
`title`	str	For individuals: title/role
`nationalities`	str	Semicolon-separated country codes
`aka_list`	str	Semicolon-separated "also known as" names
`addresses`	str	Semicolon-separated known addresses
`dob`	str	Date of birth (individuals)
`pob`	str	Place of birth (individuals)
`remarks`	str	OFAC's free-text remarks
`last_updated`	str	YYYY-MM-DD (publication date)

4. Coverage

Worldwide — all entities sanctioned by US Treasury
~10,000 entries on SDN, ~15,000 on consolidated lists
Updated continuously (sometimes daily during active enforcement)
Includes AKAs (very common, can be 10+ per entity)

5. Cross-Reference Potential

SEC EDGAR ↔ name (public companies sanctioned)
USAspending ↔ name (sanctioned entity as federal contractor — should be impossible but verify)
ICIJ Offshore ↔ name (offshore entities also sanctioned)

Join key: normalized name. CRITICAL: must match against aka_list too. Many sanctioned entities are caught only via aliases.

6. Data Quality

Names are transliterated from many scripts — multiple romanizations possible
AKAs often differ wildly from primary name
Some entries have minimal info (no DOB, no address) for individuals
Free-text remarks contain critical context — read them
"Specially Designated Global Terrorists" (SDGT) and "Cyber-related" (CYBER2) programs add and remove entries frequently

7. Acquisition Script

Path: scripts/fetch_ofac_sdn.py

bash

# Full snapshot
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_ofac_sdn.py --out data/ofac_sdn.csv

# Filter to specific program
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_ofac_sdn.py --program SDGT --out data/sdn_sdgt.csv

# Entities only (skip individuals, vessels, aircraft)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_ofac_sdn.py --entity-type entity --out data/sdn_entities.csv

8. Legal & Licensing

Public record under Executive Order authority and statutory sanctions programs
US persons MUST screen against this list — it is enforced
No restrictions on the data itself; restrictions are on transactions with the listed entities
ZERO penalty for "over-matching" — false positives must be cleared but are not prohibited

9. References

OFAC home: https://ofac.treasury.gov/
SDN list: https://ofac.treasury.gov/specially-designated-nationals-and-blocked-persons-list-sdn-human-readable-lists
Data formats: https://ofac.treasury.gov/sdn-list/sanctions-list-search-tool
Compliance guidance: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions