OFAC SDN List Scraper

Scrape the US Treasury OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list — the official US government sanctions database. Search and filter sanctioned individuals, entities, vessels, and aircraft by name, program, type, or country. Fully public data, no API key or credentials required.

What you can do

• Search by name — find any sanctioned person, organization, or vessel by name or alias
• Filter by sanctions program — get all entries under SDGT, IRAN, RUSSIA, CUBA, DPRK, UKRAINE, and 20+ other programs
• Browse by type — filter to only Individuals, Entities, Vessels, or Aircraft
• Filter by country — narrow results to entries associated with a specific country
• Download the full list — retrieve all 19,000+ SDN entries in one run

Output fields

Each record includes the fields that are present in the source data. Fields are omitted if not applicable (e.g. vessel fields only appear for vessels, date of birth only appears for individuals).

Field	Description
uid	OFAC unique identifier
name	Full concatenated name
firstName	First name (individuals only)
lastName	Last name or entity name
title	Title or role (if present)
type	Individual, Entity, Vessel, or Aircraft
programs	List of sanctions programs (e.g., ["SDGT", "IRAN"])
aliases	Known aliases and alternate names
addresses	Known addresses
nationality	Primary nationality (individuals)
dateOfBirth	Date of birth (individuals)
placeOfBirth	Place of birth (individuals)
idNumbers	Identity documents (passport, national ID, tax ID) — list of {idType, idNumber, country}
vesselType	Vessel type (vessels only, e.g., Tug, Cargo)
vesselFlag	Flag state (vessels only)
vesselOwner	Registered owner (vessels only)
vesselTonnage	Gross registered tonnage (vessels only)
vesselCallSign	Radio call sign (vessels only)
sourceUrl	OFAC SDN list source page
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp of when the record was collected
recordType	Always "sdn_entry"

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
mode	select	search (filter by name/type/country), byProgram (all entries for a program), all (entire list)
searchQuery	text	Name or alias substring to match (mode=search). Example: Putin, Al-Qaeda, Sberbank
program	select	Sanctions program code (mode=byProgram). Examples: SDGT, IRAN, RUSSIA, CUBA, DPRK
filterType	select	Restrict to Individual, Entity, Vessel, or Aircraft
filterCountry	text	Only entries associated with this country (partial, case-insensitive)
maxItems	integer	Maximum number of records to return (default: 100, max: 25,000)

Example use cases

Find all Russian sanctions entries:

• mode: byProgram, program: RUSSIA, maxItems: 5000

Search for a specific sanctioned person:

• mode: search, searchQuery: Al-Baghdadi

Get all sanctioned Iranian vessels:

• mode: byProgram, program: IRAN, filterType: Vessel, maxItems: 1000

Download the full SDN list:

• mode: all, maxItems: 25000

Find sanctioned Cuban entities:

• mode: byProgram, program: CUBA, filterType: Entity, maxItems: 2000

Data source

US Treasury OFAC Specially Designated Nationals XML list — publicly available at https://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/sdn.xml. Updated regularly by the US Treasury Department. The SDN list contains over 19,000 entries across dozens of sanctions programs.

The source URL for citations is: https://ofac.treasury.gov/sdntxt.aspx

FAQs

Does this require an API key or login? No. The OFAC SDN list is a fully public government document — no registration, no API key, no paid plan required.

How many entries are in the SDN list? As of mid-2026, the list contains over 19,000 entries including individuals, entities, vessels, and aircraft.

What is the OFAC SDN list? The Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list is maintained by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. It identifies individuals and organizations subject to US economic and trade sanctions. US persons and companies are generally prohibited from dealing with SDN-listed parties.

What sanctions programs are covered? The list includes dozens of programs including: SDGT (Global Terrorism), IRAN, RUSSIA, UKRAINE-EO13685, CUBA, DPRK (North Korea), SYRIA, VENEZUELA, GLOBAL-MAGNITSKY, BELARUS, MYANMAR, and many others.

How often is the data updated? The actor downloads fresh data from the OFAC servers on every run. OFAC typically updates the SDN list multiple times per week.

Can I search by passport number or national ID? Yes — use mode=search with searchQuery set to the document number. The search matches against all name fields and aliases. Note: identity document data is in the idNumbers output field.

What are the vessel fields? Vessel entries include vesselType, vesselFlag, vesselOwner, vesselTonnage, and vesselCallSign. These fields are only present for Vessel type entries.