Foreign ownership of U.S. infrastructure is opaque.
Foreign adversaries acquire interests in critical infrastructure through layered corporate structures that obscure their identity. Sayari traces beneficial ownership across 250+ jurisdictions to surface hidden foreign control.
31%
of CFIUS-reviewed transactions in 2024 involved Chinese, Russian, or Iranian beneficial owners identified through intermediary corporate structures not disclosed in the initial filing. Early detection requires world-model data, not disclosure forms.
CFIUS Annual Report 2024 · Sayari Research
THE PROBLEM
Why foreign ownership screening misses indirect control
The structural gaps that point solutions can’t close.
Multi-layer ownership concealment
Foreign state actors use holding companies, trusts, and nominee directors registered in permissive jurisdictions to acquire U.S. infrastructure assets without appearing in any direct ownership record.
Disclosure form gaps
CFIUS and foreign ownership disclosure requirements depend on accurate self-reporting. Adversarial actors deliberately structure acquisitions to fall below review thresholds or misstate the beneficial owner.
Cross-jurisdiction data fragmentation
Beneficial ownership data for an acquisition structure may span 5+ jurisdictions. No single government database integrates this information – manual research takes weeks and may miss key nodes.
THE SAYARI APPROACH
Surface hidden foreign control before acquisition completes.
Sayari integrates beneficial ownership filings, corporate registry data, and trade records from 250+ jurisdictions into a single world model – enabling analysts to trace foreign state-linked ownership chains in minutes, not weeks.
Beneficial Owner Traversal
CFIUS Filing Verification
Foreign Principal Network Mapping
Continuous Ownership Monitoring
foci_assessment.log
> FOCI Assessment
investor: “Global Grid Ventures Ltd (Cayman)”
✓ 6-hop ownership chain traversed
> Foreign Ownership Analysis
✗ Chinese state ownership confirmed (71%)
✗ CFIUS mandatory filing triggered
On this page
HOW IT WORKS
From data to decision
Submit any U.S. infrastructure entity
Sayari accepts company names, registered agent data, or federal contract identifiers.
Cross-jurisdiction ownership traversal
Every entity is resolved across corporate registries in 250+ jurisdictions to identify the ultimate beneficial owner.
Cross-reference against foreign adversary networks
Sayari flags foreign state-linked ownership chains and provides source documents for every link in the chain.
450M+
Corporate entities in Sayari’s world model
Sayari integrates corporate registry filings from 250+ jurisdictions into a unified world model – enabling beneficial ownership tracing across the complete global corporate structure, not just the jurisdictions that have made their data available in English.
Sayari Research · 2025
WHY SAYARI
Sayari vs Legacy tools
SAYARI
- Active beneficial owner traversal – doesn’t depend on disclosure accuracy
- 250+ jurisdiction corporate registry integration in a single query
- Proactive analysis – screen any entity before it becomes a CFIUS review
- Continuous monitoring – Sayari Signal alerts on new foreign-linked ownership relationships
LEGACY TOOLS
- Disclosure form dependency – relies on accurate self-reporting by adversarial actors
- No cross-jurisdiction integration – beneficial owner research is manual and jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction
- Static, reactive analysis – reviews happen after acquisition, not during due diligence
- No continuous monitoring – ownership changes after initial review go undetected
CLIENT RESULTS
Measured outcomes from production deployments
250+
Jurisdictions with corporate registry data for ownership tracing
10+
Degrees of corporate ownership separation resolvable in a single query
<60s
Average time to map beneficial ownership chain across jurisdictions
PRODUCTS FOR THIS USE CASE
Sayari products that power this workflow
Sayari Graph
Entity resolution and ownership graph for 500M+ companies across 250+ jurisdictions.
Sayari Map
Trade-flow intelligence mapping shipment data to corporate ownership networks.
Sayari Signal
Continuous monitoring that alerts on meaningful changes across your counterparty base.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Common questions about this use case
GET STARTED
See hidden foreign control traced in minutes.
Request a demo to see Sayari Map trace a re-export network on live trade data.
Request a demo to see Sayari trace beneficial ownership for a CFIUS-relevant entity.
Resources & Insights