USAID Awards Grant to The Sentry and Castellum.AI to Close Data Gaps in Financial Crime Prevention

NEW YORK & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded a grant to The Sentry and Castellum.AI to launch a groundbreaking initiative to provide corruption risk data to the private sector. The partnership between Castellum.AI and The Sentry will leverage artificial intelligence and Castellum.AI’s patented data enrichment process to enable companies globally to identify corruption risk across customers and counterparties.

"At Castellum.AI, we believe that data transparency is crucial to combating financial crime," said Peter Piatetsky, CEO of Castellum.AI. "This project will enable more businesses—from small enterprises in emerging markets to large banks in New York or Singapore—to access vital data that helps prevent corruption and sanctions evasion. We are excited to partner with The Sentry to ensure this data is accessible to organizations that are most capable of preventing corruption and money laundering."

Michelle-Kendler-Kretsch, Investigations Manager at The Sentry, said: "Thanks to USAID's support, The Sentry is excited to strengthen our partnership with Castellum.AI and expand data-sharing efforts with more NGOs and civil society groups investigating corruption. While investigative NGOs like The Sentry uncover vital evidence, making these findings actionable for the private sector can be a challenge. This grant allows us to bridge that gap by building an AI-powered collaborative platform for NGOs worldwide. By making this data publicly accessible and lowering cost barriers, we’ll empower banks, traders, businesses, governments and civil society to more effectively identify and prevent financial crimes."

This partnership between The Sentry, an investigative nonprofit that uncovers transnational corruption networks, and Castellum.AI, a compliance screening solutions provider, transforms investigative reports on corruption into actionable data for the private sector. As a result, compliance teams worldwide will be able to quickly and easily identify corruption-related risk associated with customers, transactions and supply chains. This data will be publicly accessible through Castellum.AI’s online compliance platform.

Transforming Anti-Corruption Efforts through Data Access

Investigative NGOs, like The Sentry, publish critical information on corruption globally. However, this data is not readily accessible to financial institutions and others who need this data for effective customer and supply chain due diligence. The absence of this data in an accessible format hinders compliance professionals’ efforts to detect and address corruption risks. The Sentry and Castellum.AI first joined forces in 2022 to address this gap by making the information derived from The Sentry’s investigations available for screening.

With funding from USAID through the Countering Transnational Corruption Grand Challenge for Development, The Sentry and Castellum.AI are now scaling this initiative. The partners will develop an AI-assisted platform designed to standardize and disseminate corruption-related data, making it accessible to banks, traders, and other businesses worldwide. The platform will allow NGOs to easily share their data in a format compatible with existing compliance tools, eliminating barriers to leveraging corruption-related data.

About Castellum.AI

Castellum.AI is a compliance platform that helps governments and businesses identify and prevent financial crime. With a global risk database covering sanctions, PEPs, adverse media, sanctioned beneficial ownership (SBO) and other data categories, compliance teams can easily screen customers, other counterparties and transactions to comply with AML regulations. Castellum.AI users can integrate risk data screening directly into existing core, CRM and case management systems or access via the Castellum.AI platform.

About The Sentry

The Sentry is an investigative and policy organization that seeks to disable networks that benefit from violent conflict, repression, and kleptocracy. These tragedies persist because the perpetrators rarely face meaningful consequences. The Sentry aims to alter the warped incentive structures that continually undermine peace and good governance. Our investigations follow the money as it is laundered from war zones to financial centers around the world. We provide evidence and strategies for governments, banks, and law enforcement to hold perpetrators and enablers of violence and corruption to account. These efforts provide new leverage for human rights, peace, and anti-corruption efforts.