A politically exposed person is someone entrusted with a prominent public function — a head of state, a senior politician, a senior judicial, military or state-enterprise official — together with their immediate family and close associates. The status is not an allegation; it is a marker that the relationship carries higher bribery and corruption risk and needs closer checks. Being a PEP is not a reason to refuse a customer, and blanket refusal is not what the standards ask for.
PEP status attaches to a person. An address check cannot see it, and any tool claiming otherwise is describing something it does not have. What the chain tells you is what the money touched; what a name screen tells you is who you are dealing with. A desk needs both, and confusing them produces bad decisions in both directions.
The reason the marker exists is narrow and practical: public office creates opportunities for bribery and misappropriation, and the funds move through ordinary financial channels like everyone else's. Closer checks are about the origin of the money, not about the person's politics.
A result speaks about the address and its connections: the verdict, the recommendation, the named drivers, the attributed entity where there is one. It does not assert who the human counterparty is, and it does not carry PEP status — that comes from your identity screening against name lists.
Where an address is attributed to a designated entity, that is a sanctions match, which is a different and much harder obligation. Keep the two separate in your file. In the workspace the address side lives as a case with an owner and a signed report; in the Telegram bot it is a verdict in seconds, free, three checks a day.
No. The status describes a public role and the corruption risk that comes with proximity to it. Most PEPs are ordinary customers who need a better-documented file.
Rules differ. Many regimes allow a risk-based step-down some period after the person leaves office, and others expect the marker to persist. Follow your own supervisor's text rather than a general rule.
Immediate family and close associates are treated as PEPs in most regimes, because that is where funds are commonly held. Your screening should cover them explicitly.
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No. Address screening tells you what the funds are connected to. PEP status comes from identity screening against name lists, and the two controls sit side by side in the file.
Send any wallet to the Telegram bot and get a verdict in seconds. Three checks a day, free, no signup. Desks that screen every deposit run it on plans from $199/mo.