Can the API tell me a company is a shell?

No. Prometiam returns registry facts and a sanctions match_score — never a risk score and never a verdict. This page lists the individual signals investigators already check, with the endpoint and field behind each one, so a human reviewer decides what to do with them.

How do I detect a phoenix director pattern?

Call GET /directors/network with min_companies to find people linked to an unusual number of companies, then GET /people/{id} for that person's appointments, which carry is_current, appointment_date and end_date. Several non-current appointments whose companies dissolved and reappeared under new names is the phoenix pattern. Officers are held for Spain, France, the UK and Norway; Ireland and Poland are company-level, so this signal does not exist there.

Does Prometiam verify beneficial ownership?

Only for the UK, through the People with Significant Control data returned by GET /people/search?country=GB. Every other registry in this API returns officers and directors, which is a different legal concept from beneficial ownership.

Which countries support the serial-officer and churn signals?

Officers, and so the serial-officer and phoenix signals, exist for Spain, France, the UK and Norway. Corporate events — address_change, name_change, director_change, capital_change — exist for Spain, France and the UK; Norway has no corporate-event stream. Ireland and Poland are company-level today.

Is sanctions screening included, and is it final?

POST /sanctions/screen checks up to 50 names — the company and its officers together — against the EU, UN, OFAC, UK OFSI, French and US export-control lists in one call. It is beta: treat a hit as one signal among several, not as the sole control.

Shell Company Detection API — Signals, Not Verdicts

No API can tell you a company is a shell, including this one. Prometiam surfaces the individual registry signals that fraud, investigations and enhanced-due-diligence teams already check by hand — incorporation age, capital, serial officers, ownership churn, status and sanctions exposure — across six European company registries, endpoint by endpoint, field by field, so a human reviewer decides what to do with them. The API returns no risk score anywhere: the only score-shaped field in the whole system is a sanctions match_score, a name-match confidence, not a verdict.

Seven signals and where each one comes from

Age. founding_date and the founded_after filter on GET /companies/search flag a counterparty incorporated days or weeks ago.
Capital. capital_amount and capital_currency on the same record, where the registry has published a figure.
Serial officers. GET /directors/network (min_companies, legal_entities=true for corporate directors) plus GET /people/{id} appointment history (is_current, appointment_date, end_date) surface the phoenix pattern — a director whose companies keep dissolving and re-forming. Held for Spain, France, the UK and Norway; Ireland and Poland are company-level.
Churn. previous_names plus address_change, name_change, director_change and capital_change events from GET /company-events/search — Spain, France and the UK; Norway has no corporate-event stream.
Status. status and dissolution_date on the company record; Spanish concursal notices on GET /search; corporate insolvency across nine markets through POST /insolvency/check.
Lists. POST /sanctions/screen of the company and its officers together, beta.
UK ownership. Beneficial ownership on this API is UK-only, through People with Significant Control data on GET /people/search?country=GB — every other registry returns officers and directors, which is not beneficial ownership.

A full review card — resolve, officer network, events, insolvency or concursal check, sanctions, and a UK PSC pull — runs about six calls. The 1,000 free monthly calls cover roughly 160 review cards a month; Starter (10,000 calls) covers roughly 1,600.

Frequently asked questions

Can the API tell me a company is a shell?: No. Prometiam returns registry facts and a sanctions match_score — never a risk score and never a verdict. This page lists the individual signals investigators already check, with the endpoint and field behind each one, so a human reviewer decides what to do with them.
How do I detect a phoenix director pattern?: Call GET /directors/network with min_companies to find people linked to an unusual number of companies, then GET /people/{id} for that person's appointments, which carry is_current, appointment_date and end_date. Several non-current appointments whose companies dissolved and reappeared under new names is the phoenix pattern. Officers are held for Spain, France, the UK and Norway; Ireland and Poland are company-level, so this signal does not exist there.
Does Prometiam verify beneficial ownership?: Only for the UK, through the People with Significant Control data returned by GET /people/search?country=GB. Every other registry in this API returns officers and directors, which is a different legal concept from beneficial ownership.
Which countries support the serial-officer and churn signals?: Officers, and so the serial-officer and phoenix signals, exist for Spain, France, the UK and Norway. Corporate events — address_change, name_change, director_change, capital_change — exist for Spain, France and the UK; Norway has no corporate-event stream. Ireland and Poland are company-level today.
Is sanctions screening included, and is it final?: POST /sanctions/screen checks up to 50 names — the company and its officers together — against the EU, UN, OFAC, UK OFSI, French and US export-control lists in one call. It is beta: treat a hit as one signal among several, not as the sole control.