Use case · VerifyDesk

Screen a company or person against sanctions lists from an agent

Screen a person or company name against the OFAC SDN, OFAC Consolidated and UN Consolidated lists in one call, with scored matches and the date of the list data.

The job

Before paying a supplier, onboarding a customer or shipping to a new buyer, a business screens the name against the sanctions lists that apply to it. The US Treasury publishes the OFAC SDN list and its Consolidated (non-SDN) list; the United Nations publishes its Consolidated List. Names appear with aliases, which is why an exact string search is not enough.

The useful output is a short list of candidate matches with a similarity score, the list and program each comes from, and proof of which edition of each list was checked.

Why an agent needs a tool for it

An agent that moves money or onboards counterparties cannot stop and ask a human to run a search on three government websites. It needs one call that covers the lists, matches aliases and returns structured candidates it can escalate.

screen_sanctions always reports how many entries were screened, which lists answered and data_as_of, the oldest refresh among them. Keeping that with the decision is what makes a screening record checkable months later.

The calls

2 tool calls.

Live production call2026-10-01

Agent calls screen_sanctions

{
  "name": "screen_sanctions",
  "arguments": {
    "name": "CONGOMET TRADING HOUSE"
  }
}

VerifyDesk answers

{
  "query": "CONGOMET TRADING HOUSE",
  "screened_entries": 23674,
  "lists": [
    "OFAC Consolidated (non-SDN)",
    "OFAC SDN",
    "UN Consolidated"
  ],
  "data_as_of": "2026-10-01T10:59:14.604Z",
  "list_freshness": [
    {
      "list": "OFAC SDN",
      "refreshedAt": "2026-10-01T10:59:14.604Z",
      "origin": "mirror"
    },
    {
      "list": "OFAC Consolidated (non-SDN)",
      "refreshedAt": "2026-10-01T10:59:18.031Z",
      "origin": "mirror"
    },
    {
      "list": "UN Consolidated",
      "refreshedAt": "2026-10-01T10:59:22.139Z",
      "origin": "mirror"
    }
  ],
  "stale": false,
  "match_count": 1,
  "matches": [
    {
      "name": "CONGOMET TRADING HOUSE",
      "type": "entity",
      "programs": "DRC",
      "list": "UN Consolidated",
      "score": 1
    }
  ]
}

A listed entity: one match with score 1, from the UN Consolidated List under the DRC program. This is the case an agent must stop on and hand to a person.

Live production call2026-10-01

Agent calls screen_sanctions

{
  "name": "screen_sanctions",
  "arguments": {
    "name": "Danone"
  }
}

VerifyDesk answers

{
  "query": "Danone",
  "screened_entries": 23674,
  "lists": [
    "OFAC Consolidated (non-SDN)",
    "OFAC SDN",
    "UN Consolidated"
  ],
  "data_as_of": "2026-10-01T10:59:14.604Z",
  "stale": false,
  "match_count": 0,
  "matches": []
}

A clean result still says what was screened and against which edition of the lists, which is the part an auditor asks for. Shortened for this page: list_freshness omitted; it is identical to the call above.

Limits worth knowing

A match is a signal for enhanced due diligence, never a legal determination. Similar names collide, and the score is a similarity measure, not a probability of identity.
Coverage is the US OFAC lists and the UN Consolidated List. EU and UK lists are not screened today; if your obligations include them, this is not a complete screen on its own.
When the list data is older than the freshness threshold the answer says stale: true. An agent should treat a stale screen as unfinished rather than clean.

Pricing

2 credits for the calls on this page.

Tool	Credits per call
screen_sanctions	1

Credits are prepaid and shared across every server. Starter is $10 for 1,000 credits, packs never expire, and 100 credits are free without a card. Full pricing.

Install

Connect VerifyDesk to your agent.

A remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP. Get a free key, swap it in, and the calls above work as written, with answers reflecting the data on the day you call.

EndpointStreamable HTTP

https://verifydesk.agenttoolworks.com/mcp

Connect it, Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http verifydesk \
  https://verifydesk.agenttoolworks.com/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer atw_live_your_key"

Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor and Windsurf is in the docs.