Beneficial ownership chain resolutionbacklog_item

journalisminvestigationfinancialownership
1 min read · Edit on Pyrite

Problem

Shell company structures obscure true ownership. An investigator needs to trace ownership chains: Person A owns Company B (80%), which owns Company C (51%), which owns Asset D — making Person A the beneficial owner of Asset D. This requires resolving ownership entry chains and computing effective ownership percentages.

Scope

  • Ownership chain traversal: follow `owns`/`owned_by` links through intermediaries
  • Effective ownership calculation: multiply percentages along the chain
  • Beneficial ownership flag: mark `beneficial: true` on ownership entries where the owner is a natural person
  • Shell company detection: flag entities that own assets but have no employees, revenue, or physical presence
  • CLI: `pyrite investigation ownership-chain --depth=5`
  • MCP tool: `investigation_ownership_chain`
  • Acceptance Criteria

  • Ownership chains resolve through 5+ intermediary layers
  • Effective ownership percentages calculated correctly (e.g., 80% × 51% = 40.8%)
  • Beneficial owners (natural persons) identified at chain endpoints
  • Shell company indicators flagged