ICIJ has published searchable databases from its major projects — including Offshore Leaks and Pandora Papers — that contain profiles of “power players” and “confidential clients” and link to original corporate records and legal filings. Many of these documents are also available on DocumentCloud, a widely used repository used by investigative centers.
Among open data tools, Cosic highlighted:
OpenCorporates, a key global company database that often gives the first overview of an oligarch’s corporate footprint.
Property and land registers, especially in jurisdictions favored by elites. Spain’s Property Cadastre, for example, allows name-based searches for a fee and helps map villas on the coast owned via offshore entities.
OCCRP’s Investigative Dashboard, which lists corporate, land, and court registries for many countries, and which is a good starting point when you do not know which authority holds a particular dataset.She also recommended OpenSanctions, which aggregates sanctions lists from multiple jurisdictions and, crucially, all major spelling variants of sanctioned individuals’ names.
For politically exposed persons, Cosic mentioned specialized PEP databases she uses to double-check whether she has missed any companies tied to a target. And while commercial databases such as Sayari or Orbis can be costly, she urged newsrooms to negotiate temporary or discounted access, sometimes in exchange for credit in published stories.