Map the people behind the structure

Go beyond company registries to profile key officers, trace beneficial ownership through tools like the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database, and identify non-formal affiliates who don't appear on any org chart

Trace trade relationships across borders

Use import and export databases to map supply chain connections, identify trading partners, and surface relationships that don't appear in corporate registries.

Turn LinkedIn into an investigative tool

Extract corporate intelligence from company pages, workforce demographics, affiliated entities, and job postings - where hiring patterns, capability gaps, and geographic expansion often reveal more than any official disclosure.

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This course teaches you to systematically investigate corporate entities using open-source intelligence. You'll cover the full arc of a corporate investigation: planning and scoping, profiling companies and their leadership, analysing ownership structures, screening for sanctions and compliance risks, and tracing trade activity. Whether you're conducting due diligence, supporting law enforcement, or assessing corporate risk, the course gives you a structured, repeatable methodology you can apply immediately.

ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETE

This course takes approximately 4 to 6 hours to complete. It is entirely self-paced, so you can work through the modules in one sitting or spread them across multiple sessions.

WHO THIS COURSE IS FOR

This course is designed for intelligence analysts, investigators, researchers, and security professionals who need to collect and analyse information from China's online environment.

It suits practitioners supporting geopolitical analysis, corporate due diligence, counter-intelligence, or technology tracking. 

PREREQUISITES

Completion of OSINT Primer or equivalent foundational OSINT experience is recommended.

Familiarity with basic search techniques and the intelligence cycle will help but is not required.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Investigating Individuals: Social Media & Open Sources is the natural next step when a corporate investigation pivots to researching specific people, such as key officers, beneficial owners, or affiliated individuals. This course gives you a systematic approach to profiling people across social media and open sources, building directly on the personnel mapping techniques covered here.

Website OSINT extends your investigation into a company's digital infrastructure, including domains, hosting, and online presence. For corporate profiling work where official records only tell part of the story, this course teaches you to extract intelligence from the web assets a company controls.

Attribution: Digital Footprint Assessment is recommended if you haven't already completed it, particularly if your corporate investigations carry attribution risk. Understanding how your own online activity can expose your research intent is essential before engaging with platforms like LinkedIn or trade databases where your access may be visible.

COURSE CURRICULUM

    1. Welcome and Course Overview

    2. Before We Begin

    3. Planning a Corporate Investigation

    4. Data Sources for Corporate Research

    5. Understanding Corporate Structures

    6. Quiz: Corporate Investigation Methodology

    1. Company Registries and Business Databases

    2. Shareholder and Ownership Analysis

    3. Beneficial Ownership

    4. Using ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database

    5. Profiling Key Officers and Leadership

    6. Investigating LinkedIn for Corporate Intelligence

    7. Educational Institutions as Personnel Pipelines

    8. Non-Formal Affiliates

    9. Quiz: Profiling Companies and Leadership

    1. Understanding Sanctions Regimes

    2. Screening Against Sanctions Databases

    3. Quiz: Sanctions and Compliance Screening

    1. Introduction to Trade Data Sources

    2. Searching Import and Export Records

    3. Quiz: Trade Activity

    1. Course Summary and Next Steps

    2. Post Course Survey

COURSE SNAPSHOT

  • $199.00
  • 23 lessons
  • 1 hour of video content