Topics

Topics are descriptive qualifiers for entities. They can be used to say things like this Company is a bank, or this Person is a politician, or this Position is a political office on a sub-national level of government.

Some topics imply a risk association of an entity (see table below), while others act as a purely descriptive taxonomy of the business and geopolitical world. Risk associations do not consistently imply wrongdoing: for example, being a Politically Exposed Person is a risk factor, but only in the sense that in-depth scrutiny (e.g. source of funds) is warranted.

Besides the informative value, topics are ultimately supposed to bear fruits in the context of graph-based data analysis, where they would enable queries such as find all paths between a government procurement award and a politician.

Attribute	Value	Detail
name	topic	Used in schema definitions
label	Topic	plural: Topics
group	topics	Used in search indexing to query all properties of a given type
matchable		Suitable for use in entity matching
pivot		Suitable for use as a pivot point for connecting to other entities

Data reference

Code	Label	Risk target
crime	Crime
crime.fraud	Fraud
crime.cyber	Cybercrime
crime.fin	Financial crime
crime.env	Environmental violations
crime.theft	Theft
crime.war	War crimes
crime.boss	Criminal leadership
crime.terror	Terrorism
crime.traffick	Trafficking
crime.traffick.drug	Drug trafficking
crime.traffick.human	Human trafficking
forced.labor	Forced labor
asset.frozen	Frozen asset
wanted	Wanted
corp.offshore	Offshore
corp.shell	Shell company
corp.public	Public listed company
corp.disqual	Disqualified
gov	Government
gov.national	National government
gov.state	State government
gov.muni	Municipal government
gov.soe	State-owned enterprise
gov.igo	Intergovernmental organization
gov.head	Head of government or state
gov.admin	Civil service
gov.executive	Executive branch of government
gov.legislative	Legislative branch of government
gov.judicial	Judicial branch of government
gov.security	Security services
gov.financial	Central banking and financial integrity
gov.religion	Religious leadership
fin	Financial services
fin.bank	Bank
fin.fund	Fund
fin.adivsor	Financial advisor
mare.detained	Maritime detention
mare.shadow	Shadow fleet
mare.sts	Ship-to-ship transfer
reg.action	Regulator action
reg.warn	Regulator warning
role.pep	Politician
role.pol	Non-PEP
role.rca	Close Associate
role.judge	Judge
role.civil	Civil servant
role.diplo	Diplomat
role.lawyer	Lawyer
role.acct	Accountant
role.spy	Spy
role.oligarch	Oligarch
role.journo	Journalist
role.act	Activist
role.lobby	Lobbyist
pol.party	Political party
pol.union	Union
rel	Religion
mil	Military
sanction	Sanctioned entity
sanction.linked	Sanction-linked entity
sanction.counter	Counter-sanctioned entity
export.control	Export controlled
export.risk	Trade risk
debarment	Debarred entity
poi	Person of interest

followthemoney.types.TopicType

Bases: EnumType

Topics define a controlled vocabulary of terms applicable to some entities, such as companies and people. They describe categories of journalistic interest which may apply to the given entity, for example if a given person is a criminal or a politician.

Besides the informative value, topics are ultimately supposed to bear fruits in the context of graph-based data analysis, where they would enable queries such as find all paths between a government procurement award and a politician.

Source code in followthemoney/types/topic.py

class TopicType(EnumType):
    """Topics define a controlled vocabulary of terms applicable to some
    entities, such as companies and people. They describe categories of
    journalistic interest which may apply to the given entity, for example
    if a given person is a criminal or a politician.

    Besides the informative value, topics are ultimately supposed to bear
    fruits in the context of graph-based data analysis, where they would
    enable queries such as _find all paths between a government procurement
    award and a politician_."""

    name = const("topic")
    group = const("topics")
    label = _("Topic")
    plural = _("Topics")
    matchable = False
    max_length = 64

    _TOPICS = {
        "crime": _("Crime"),
        "crime.fraud": _("Fraud"),
        "crime.cyber": _("Cybercrime"),
        "crime.fin": _("Financial crime"),
        "crime.env": _("Environmental violations"),
        "crime.theft": _("Theft"),
        "crime.war": _("War crimes"),
        "crime.boss": _("Criminal leadership"),
        "crime.terror": _("Terrorism"),
        "crime.traffick": _("Trafficking"),
        "crime.traffick.drug": _("Drug trafficking"),
        "crime.traffick.human": _("Human trafficking"),
        "forced.labor": _("Forced labor"),
        "asset.frozen": _("Frozen asset"),
        "wanted": _("Wanted"),
        "corp.offshore": _("Offshore"),
        "corp.shell": _("Shell company"),
        "corp.public": _("Public listed company"),
        "corp.disqual": _("Disqualified"),
        "gov": _("Government"),
        "gov.national": _("National government"),
        "gov.state": _("State government"),
        "gov.muni": _("Municipal government"),
        "gov.soe": _("State-owned enterprise"),
        "gov.igo": _("Intergovernmental organization"),
        "gov.head": _("Head of government or state"),
        "gov.admin": _("Civil service"),
        "gov.executive": _("Executive branch of government"),
        "gov.legislative": _("Legislative branch of government"),
        "gov.judicial": _("Judicial branch of government"),
        "gov.security": _("Security services"),
        "gov.financial": _("Central banking and financial integrity"),
        "gov.religion": _("Religious leadership"),
        "fin": _("Financial services"),
        "fin.bank": _("Bank"),
        "fin.fund": _("Fund"),
        "fin.adivsor": _("Financial advisor"),
        "mare.detained": _("Maritime detention"),
        "mare.shadow": _("Shadow fleet"),
        "mare.sts": _("Ship-to-ship transfer"),
        "reg.action": _("Regulator action"),
        "reg.warn": _("Regulator warning"),
        "role.pep": _("Politician"),
        "role.pol": _("Non-PEP"),
        "role.rca": _("Close Associate"),
        "role.judge": _("Judge"),
        "role.civil": _("Civil servant"),
        "role.diplo": _("Diplomat"),
        "role.lawyer": _("Lawyer"),
        "role.acct": _("Accountant"),
        "role.spy": _("Spy"),
        "role.oligarch": _("Oligarch"),
        "role.journo": _("Journalist"),
        "role.act": _("Activist"),
        "role.lobby": _("Lobbyist"),
        "pol.party": _("Political party"),
        "pol.union": _("Union"),
        "rel": _("Religion"),
        "mil": _("Military"),
        "sanction": _("Sanctioned entity"),
        "sanction.linked": _("Sanction-linked entity"),
        "sanction.counter": _("Counter-sanctioned entity"),
        "export.control": _("Export controlled"),
        "export.risk": _("Trade risk"),
        "debarment": _("Debarred entity"),
        "poi": _("Person of interest"),
    }

    RISKS = {
        "corp.disqual",
        "crime.boss",
        "crime.fin",
        "crime.fraud",
        "crime.terror",
        "crime.theft",
        "crime.traffick",
        "crime.war",
        "crime",
        "debarment",
        "export.control",
        "export.risk",
        "poi",
        "mare.detained",
        "mare.shadow",
        "reg.action",
        "reg.warn",
        "role.oligarch",
        "role.pep",
        "role.rca",
        "sanction.counter",
        "sanction.linked",
        "sanction",
        "wanted",
    }
    """A set of topics that imply a counterparty risk in business dealings."""

    def _locale_names(self, locale: Locale) -> EnumValues:
        return {k: gettext(v) for (k, v) in self._TOPICS.items()}

RISKS = {'corp.disqual', 'crime.boss', 'crime.fin', 'crime.fraud', 'crime.terror', 'crime.theft', 'crime.traffick', 'crime.war', 'crime', 'debarment', 'export.control', 'export.risk', 'poi', 'mare.detained', 'mare.shadow', 'reg.action', 'reg.warn', 'role.oligarch', 'role.pep', 'role.rca', 'sanction.counter', 'sanction.linked', 'sanction', 'wanted'} class-attribute instance-attribute

A set of topics that imply a counterparty risk in business dealings.