The action aims at developing a tool prototype to detect anomalies in firms’ ownership structure that can flag high risks of collusion, corruption and laundering of corruption proceeds. The “DATACROS” tool will help detecting:

• Ownership links among a set of firms (e.g. bidders in a procurement) to detect collusion patterns;
• Ownership links between firms and politically exposed persons, including also low-rank and local PEPs not covered by the EU regulation;
• Complex cross-border firms’ ownership structures and ownership links to off-shore and risky jurisdictions.

The action can benefit a wide range of stakeholders in the EU and beyond, by:

• Improving police investigation and judicial authorities’ prosecution capabilities on cases of corruption and laundering of its proceeds, especially cross-border ones;
• Helping national and local public bodies to assess collusion risks in procurement;
• Allowing investigative journalists, NGOs and the whole civil society to check anomalous interactions between politics and business;
• Facilitating national and EU authorities to map the role of entities from risky jurisdictions in public spending in the EU.

Working group:

• Ernesto Ugo Savona - Director of Transcrime
• Gianluca Angelo Bertoni
• Antonio Bosisio
• Francesco Calderoni
• Carlotta Carbone
• Massimiliano Carpino
• Carlo Castorina
• Maria Elena Cenci
• Serena Favarin
• María Paz Jofré Alegría
• Svein Brovold Parnas
• Michele Riccardi

Partners:

• Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Italy (Coordinator)
• Agence française anticorruption AFA - France
• Cuerpo Nacional de la Policia - Spain
• Investigative Reporting Project IRP - Italy