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Public sources
Relevant information
from multiple sources- Local media
- NGO reports
- Enforcement actions
- Court decisions
- Your customer file
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Business Radar
Connecting information
to identify risk
We analyse and connect information across sources to identify companies and connected entities associated with environmental crime.
Matching to company data, group structure and UBOs.
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Targeted risk lists
Focused on five types
of environmental crime- Waste crime
- Illegal mining
- Illegal logging
- IUU fishing
- Wildlife trade
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Your outcome
Customer exposure
and risk assessment
Portfolio exposure, Targeted Risk Lists and daily updates in your existing screening.
Regulation, threat and visibility
Regulation
The EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1624) applies from 10 July 2027. Article 10 requires an institution-wide assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing risk. Environmental crime is on the EU list of predicate offences (Directive (EU) 2018/1673, Article 2). AMLA published draft guidelines on the business-wide risk assessment in April 2026; the final version is expected in Q4 2026. The Environmental Crime Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/1203) had to be transposed by 21 May 2026 and introduces turnover-based fines for companies.
Threat
FATF estimates that environmental crime generates USD 110 to 281 billion in criminal proceeds per year and treats the laundering of those proceeds as a priority area. The Council of the EU has included environmental crime in the seven priorities of the EMPACT cycle 2026 to 2029.
Visibility
In the 2026 WWF and Themis report Beneath the Surface, 84% of surveyed financial institutions had exposure to at least one high-risk market segment for illegal mining. 40% did not screen for it. Most institutions know the risk; fewer have the data to detect it.
What a risk assessment on environmental crime needs to answer
Is it known where material exposure sits, by customer, sector, country and value-chain position?
Can current screening detect environmental crime in direct customers and in their value chain?
Institutions that answer no to one of these questions have a gap today. The AMLR makes the assessment explicit from 10 July 2027.
The evidence sits in local and official sources
Evidence of environmental crime rarely appears in sanctions lists or international wire services. It is published by local media, regulators, courts, inspection services and NGOs: investigations, formal accusations, enforcement actions, court decisions, permit violations, seizures and credible reports, often in the local language.
Where the evidence is: Local and official sources
Investigations, enforcement actions, court decisions, permit violations, seizures, NGO reports.
What screening needs: Source coverage
Are the relevant local and sector-specific sources included, in the right languages?
Where the evidence is: High-risk sectors
Forestry, mining, waste, fisheries, wildlife trade.
What screening needs: Entity linkage
Can an event be linked to the legal entity, its parent and subsidiaries, its UBOs and the countries where the group operates?
Where the evidence is: Value chain
Suppliers, processors, logistics, exporters, importers, traders.
What screening needs: Indirect exposure
Can exposure several steps from the offence be identified, at the actual customer?
Data on companies linked to environmental crime, for use in existing screening
Targeted Risk Lists contain companies and connected entities linked to environmental crime events, selected on the themes, countries, sectors and value-chain roles that the business-wide risk assessment marks as material. The lists are loaded into the screening platform the institution already uses. No system is replaced.
From risk assessment to screening
The lists go into the screening you already run. No system is replaced.
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Assess the portfolio
Match your customer file to company data and see where exposure sits.
- Sector and activity
- Countries incl. group companies
- Group and UBO relations
- Themes
No hit does not mean low risk.
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Screen in a targeted way
Companies and connected entities linked to environmental crime events.
- Who Companies, group entities and persons, including UBOs, with identifiers for matching.
- Event Investigations, formal accusations, enforcement actions, court decisions, credible allegations, and outcomes that clear an entity, such as acquittals or corrections.
- Linkage Direct customer, parent, subsidiary, UBO, supplier, vessel, processor, exporter, importer, trader.
- Evidence Event, role of the entity, status and source per record. Amounts where reported, with their context: fine imposed, damages claimed, estimated damage.
- Use Portfolio screening, onboarding, periodic review, ongoing monitoring.
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Keep it current
Use your current platform.
- List upload Custom or third-party list.
- Batch file Portfolio screening.
- API Ongoing monitoring.
- Daily updates New records and status changes, e.g. allegation to conviction or acquittal.
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Matching and review Assess potential matches within your existing screening process.
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Risk-based follow-up Investigate relevant matches and determine appropriate next steps.
Environmental crime types in scope
Scope is agreed per institution. Institutions that already monitor sustainability themes such as deforestation, agrochemicals or fisheries extend them: forestry from logging to harvesting, processing, transport, trading and permits; agrochemicals to prohibited and hazardous substances; wildlife from protected species to trade and trafficking; fisheries from the vessel to processors, traders and buyers.
Priority 1
- Waste crime and waste trafficking
- Illegal mining and natural-resource extraction
- Forestry crime: illegal logging, land clearing, and fraudulent permits or certification
Priority 2
- IUU fishing (illegal, unreported and unregulated)
- Illegal wildlife trade
- Pollution offences
- Hazardous chemicals and substances
- Illegal water extraction
Exposure beyond the entity that commits the offence
The customer of a bank is often several steps removed from the offence. Targeted Risk Lists therefore cover the chain from extraction or harvesting to the downstream buyer.
Exposure through group companies, owners and countries
An environmental crime event does not have to concern your customer directly to be relevant. The event is shown at the entity involved, with its relation to your customer. Involvement or guilt is not transferred.
Where the event is: Foreign parent company
Investigated for illegal waste trading.
How it reaches your customer: Group companies
The parent is not your customer, but its Dutch subsidiary is. Each record carries the registration numbers of the entity's group relations, which can be compared with your portfolio. Where several customers belong to one group, you see which files may need to be reviewed together.
Where the event is: UBO, a person
Convicted of illegal mining.
How it reaches your customer: Ultimate beneficial owners
Your customer is a metal trader with no known incident. The lists contain companies and persons, and persons are linked to available UBO relations. The hit is brought to the company file through the ownership relation.
Where the event is: Subsidiary in Brazil
Activity: mining, from the D&B industry code.
How it reaches your customer: Countries of operation
Your customer is the Dutch holding. Group structure from Dun & Bradstreet shows where a group operates beyond the customer's country of registration. A country mentioned in an article is not evidence of activity there.
A proportionate event framework
Not every event category carries the same weight from the start. A practical initial scope contains convictions, formal accusations and material enforcement actions. Credible allegations are added selectively, for higher-risk topics, geographies, sectors or value-chain positions. This keeps the first results focused on high-confidence signals without excluding allegations from the framework.
Each record states the event, the role of the entity and its status. Outcomes that clear an entity, such as an acquittal or a correction, are recorded and delivered as well. A credible allegation remains an allegation. Amounts are recorded with their context; a missing or low amount is not a reason to exclude a relevant event.
Coverage, entity resolution and traceable records
17M+ sources in 108+ languages, including regional news, regulators, courts, enforcement bodies and NGO reports.
Entity resolution that links an event to the legal entity, its group companies, its ultimate beneficial owners and connected persons, using Dun & Bradstreet company data.
Traceable records. Every record carries the event, the source and the status.
In use for sustainability and adverse media screening at banks, credit insurers and advisory firms.
ISO 27001 certified.
Business Radar can prepare a sample Targeted Risk List for one theme and one country, so the data can be tested in your own screening. Contact us for a sample or book a demo.
Frequently asked questions about environmental crime screening
What counts as environmental crime for AML purposes?
The EU lists environmental crime as a predicate offence for money laundering in Directive (EU) 2018/1673. For financial institutions the relevant categories are waste crime and waste trafficking, illegal mining and resource extraction, illegal logging and deforestation, IUU fishing, illegal wildlife trade, pollution offences and the trade in hazardous substances. The Environmental Crime Directive (Directive (EU) 2024/1203) harmonises the underlying offences across member states.
Can Business Radar help with the business-wide risk assessment itself?
Yes, as input. Business Radar matches the customer file to company data and shows exposure by sector, activity, country, group relations and theme, also for customers without a news hit. The institution adds its products, flows of funds and assessment of controls.
Is this the same as green crime or ecocide?
Green crime is a broader criminological term for the same group of offences. Ecocide refers to the most serious cases, which the Environmental Crime Directive treats as qualified offences with higher penalties. For screening the question is the same: whether a customer or a company in its value chain is linked to one of these offences.
How does this differ from ESG monitoring?
ESG monitoring follows sustainability performance and controversies, including allegations and reputational signals. Environmental crime screening is an AML control. It concerns offences, enforcement and formal accusations that make a customer relationship a money laundering risk, and it has to be evidenced in the business-wide risk assessment. Many institutions run both. The sources overlap; the purpose and the event framework differ.
Does this replace our screening tool?
No. Targeted Risk Lists are delivered as a custom list for the existing screening platform, as a batch file for portfolio screening, or through the Business Radar API for ongoing monitoring. Matching and review stay in the current workflow. New records and changes to existing records are delivered daily, as JSON or CSV files or through the API.
For adverse media and sanctions screening beyond environmental crime, see Banking and Financial Institutions.
What does a record on a risk list contain?
The company, group entity or person with identifiers for matching, the event type (investigation, formal accusation, enforcement action, court decision, credible allegation or an outcome that clears the entity), the role of the entity, its position in the value chain or group, the source, the date, the current status and, where reported, amounts with their context.
Which countries and sectors are covered?
Scope is agreed on the basis of the risk assessment: themes, countries, sectors and value-chain roles. Business Radar monitors more than 17 million sources in 108+ languages, including local media, regulators, courts and NGO reports.
How are false positives kept down?
In three ways. Customer records are matched on as many identifiers as provided: name, address, city, registration numbers, website, phone number and, where available, directors. A materiality filter assesses which company is actually involved in an event, so a company mentioned only as a commentator or bystander does not produce an alert. The event framework starts with convictions, formal accusations and material enforcement actions, and adds credible allegations only where the risk justifies it.
When is a good moment to start?
Environmental crime has been a predicate offence for money laundering since Directive (EU) 2018/1673, so the risk exists today. The AMLR applies from 10 July 2027 and the final AMLA guidelines on the business-wide risk assessment are expected in Q4 2026. A portfolio assessment, a first screen and review of the results take several months.
Case studies
Show all cases
Banking
More info: Banking
Banking
From policy to practice: How a Dutch bank automated ESG risk screening
Insurance
More info: Atradius
Atradius
From manual searches to real-time intelligence: How Atradius keeps its entire portfolio in view
Sources
Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, Articles 10 and 90 · Directive (EU) 2018/1673, Article 2(1) · Directive (EU) 2024/1203 · AMLA, draft Guidelines on the business-wide risk assessment (April 2026) · FATF, Money Laundering from Environmental Crime (2021) · Council of the EU, EMPACT priorities 2026 to 2029 (June 2025) · WWF and Themis, Beneath the Surface (March 2026)