Resources
Glossary
The language of ARA vessel compliance.
The terms that decide whether a vessel is safe to touch — sanctions law, vessel behaviour, ownership, and the Peloryn outputs built on them — defined plainly.
Sanctions & law
- Sanctions screening
- Checking a vessel and the entities connected to it against official sanctions lists. A “no match” is itself evidence — and Peloryn records it with the list version it checked.
- OFAC SDN listUS Treasury
- The US Specially Designated Nationals list. Being on it — or owned by someone on it — places a vessel out of bounds for US-touching trade.
- EU Consolidated ListEuropean Union
- The EU’s consolidated financial sanctions list, including its vessel annexes. The binding reference for EU operators.
- Annex XLIIEU Reg. 833/2014, Art. 3s
- The EU list of vessels that operators may not bunker, supply, crew, or service — in port or at sea. The hard stop for an ARA service provider.
- 16th package“facilitate” offence
- The EU’s 16th sanctions package (February 2026) that made it a criminal act to facilitate an unsafe or uninsured tanker, pulling suppliers, traders, and agents directly into the sanctions chain.
- Designation
- The formal listing of a vessel or entity by an authority. Official lists lag the water — a vessel can behave like a sanctioned ship for months before it is designated.
- 50% rule
- The principle that an entity owned 50%-or-more by a sanctioned party is itself treated as sanctioned. It’s why ownership must be mapped, not just name-screened.
- FIOD
- The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service — Europe’s most active sanctions enforcer, focused on the ARA. It has arrested suppliers and service providers, not just shipowners.
- Feitelijk leidinggevende
- Dutch legal concept for the person who effectively directed a prohibited act. Under the Sanctions Act, that individual — not only the company — can be criminally liable.
Vessel behaviour
- AISAutomatic Identification System
- The transponder system that broadcasts a vessel’s identity, position, and movement. The primary source for behavioural evidence — and the thing evasive vessels switch off.
- AIS gap“going dark”
- A period where a vessel stops broadcasting. Not automatically suspicious — but silence in a high-coverage zone, assessed by duration and location, can be strong evidence.
- Ship-to-ship transferSTS
- Cargo moved directly between vessels at sea. Often legitimate — and also a way to obscure a cargo’s origin. Peloryn suppresses routine ARA-barge STS to avoid false positives.
- Dark fleetshadow fleet
- Vessels operating to evade sanctions — typically through opaque ownership, reflagging, AIS manipulation, and STS. Their activity in the North Sea has risen sharply.
- Kinematic spoofing
- Broadcasting a false position so a vessel appears to be somewhere it isn’t. Flagged when movement is physically implausible — too far, too fast.
- Reflagging
- Changing a vessel’s flag state — often repeatedly — to obscure history or escape scrutiny. A common shadow-fleet move that name-screening misses.
- Loitering
- Waiting outside normal operating areas, sometimes to stage a rendezvous or transfer. Weighed by location, duration, and vessel history.
Ownership & identity
- IMO numbervessel identity
- A permanent seven-digit identifier assigned to a ship’s hull for life. Unlike a name or flag, it doesn’t change — the anchor for resolving identity.
- MMSI
- The Maritime Mobile Service Identity broadcast over AIS. It can be reassigned or cloned, so a conflict between MMSI and IMO is itself a risk signal.
- UBOUltimate Beneficial Owner
- The real person who ultimately owns or controls a vessel, often hidden two or three corporate layers up. Resolving it — under the 50% rule — is where Verify earns its keep.
- Resolution boundary
- The point past which ownership can no longer be resolved with confidence. Peloryn states it explicitly in the report rather than guessing beyond the evidence.
Peloryn terms
- Vessel Risk FilePeloryn Protect
- The output of a Protect screen: a fast decision — Clear, Review, Investigate, or Reject — with the screening evidence and sources behind it.
- Enhanced Due Diligence reportPeloryn Verify · EDD
- Verify’s 11-section report: identity, sanctions, ownership context, counterparty risk, behaviour, evidence, limitations, and decision support — timestamped and hashed.
- Evidence VaultPeloryn Verify
- Where every Verify report is stored — hashed, timestamped, and retained for years. Re-run a saved record and Verify flags exactly what changed.
- Decision label
- The single verdict on a file. Protect uses Clear · Review · Investigate · Reject; Verify reports Clear · Review · Elevated — always decision support, never an automatic go / no-go.
- SHA-256 hashchain of custody
- A cryptographic fingerprint applied to a Verify report. If a single character changes after generation, the hash changes — proving the file hasn’t been altered.
From terms to evidence
See these signals on a real vessel.
Start free on Protect, or request a sample Verify report against a real ARA vessel and counterparty.