The Team

Friedrich Lindenberg is the founder of OpenSanctions. His interest in watchlist data is inspired by his work in investigative reporting. Friedrich led the data team at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) from 2016 to 2021, where he contributed to numerous investigations into transnational crime, offshore finance and money laundering; including the Russian and Azerbaijani Laundromat cases.

He started the Aleph project, an open-source data platform used by reporters and analysts in over 40 media organisations to explore large structured and unstructured datasets and find reporting leads.

Frederik Richter worked as a financial and investigative journalist for 20 years, during which he uncovered numerous cases of fraud, money laundering and bribery. His main interest has always been the space where power and money overlap.

Frederik reported from the Middle East and South East Asia for over ten years, including for Reuters. In 2015, he joined the Berlin-based investigative newsroom CORRECTIV where he led a number of award-winning investigations, including on the global CumEx tax fraud. In 2020, he published a book on the foreign corrupt practices still widespread in the export business of German industry, with chapters including on Brazil, South Africa, Russia and the Arab world.

Brenna Maeve is the head of Customer Success and Community Management at OpenSanctions. She is focused on developing the framework for a robust customer journey that not only gives a smooth experience, but also meaningful engagement and adoption.

Her first introduction to Open Data was while working for Mapillary, now a part of Meta, where she engaged with the OpenStreetMap community that included humanitarian mapping projects and organizations across the globe. She is passionate about having good, accessible, clear data contribute to tangible change.

Rita Prates is the Operations Manager at OpenSanctions. With a strong operations and project management background, she specializes in optimizing workflows, enhancing efficiency, and creatively executing strategic initiatives.

She’s passionate about OpenSanctions’ mission of promoting transparency and uses her skills to streamline processes and support smooth, efficient operations.

JD Bothma is a software developer with a deep interest in making data meaningful, and making systems work. At OpenSanctions he works on the data platform and supports customers in making use of the data. Previously as Head of Tech and then Head of Product at OpenUp in South Africa, JD was responsible for developing numerous open data tools, making information easily accessible to both technical and non-technical audiences and clients in government, civil society, academia, and the media.

He has a passion for understanding how data is best shared to be easily usable, and helping users understand the opportunities and limitations of a dataset.

Ivan Stavropoltsev is a Data Engineer at OpenSanctions. He is passionate about data accuracy and has technical expertise in web scraping, data cleaning and integration. His specialization lies in constructing and managing web crawlers to gather information from various data sources.

Prior to joining OpenSanctions, Ivan gained a Master's degree in International Affairs from the Hertie School in Berlin, where he focused on International Security and Data Science.

Paul May is our Security Consultant, advising us on our security posture, threats, information security policies and our compliance and certifications. He's been an advisor of OpenSanctions since its founding.

Paul also works in investigations for Czech outlet investigace.cz, and is an ICA-trained anti-money laundering investigator and digital forensic consultant. He is passionate about supporting researchers with open data used for sanctions matching, and understanding the complex global web of financial crime.

And you? Check out our open positions.