“
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Oscar Wilde
„
There are many challenges when assessing and investigating counterparties from ex-Soviet countries. The most underrated problem is the transliteration of names written in languages using the Cyrillic alphabet. An example that speaks for itself is that of French actor Gérard Xavier Depardieu, who obtained Russian citizenship in 2013. His name translates in Russian as Жерар Депардьё or Жера́р Ксавье́ Депардьё. The French transliteration of the Russian version is Zherar Ksavie Deparde. The two versions of the name are hugely different, and in fact, in such a situation, another identity is created. If we add in the picture the cases of persons with three or four passports, including Ukrainian or Israeli, the likelihood of encountering multiple names attached to the same face increases.
Transliteration is a real weapon facilitating the creation of multiple identities. In other words, versions of the same person’s name in various languages allow them to create different identities. The following names: Vladimir Plahotniuc, Plahotniuc Vladimir Gheorghievici, Vlad Ulinici, Vladimir Ulinici, Влад Володимир Плахотнюк (in Russian), Владимир Георгиевич Плахотнюк (in Ukrainian) depict the same person, a controversial Moldavian businessman. For example, the US State Department officially mentions him for his involvement in significant corruption. It is impossible to build a full-fledged picture of their interests and connections without a useful multilingual name matching tool when assessing such persons.
Transliteration is a real weapon facilitating the creation of multiple identities. In other words, versions of the same person’s name in various languages allow them to create different identities. The following names: Vladimir Plahotniuc, Plahotniuc Vladimir Gheorghievici, Vlad Ulinici, Vladimir Ulinici, Влад Володимир Плахотнюк (in Russian), Владимир Георгиевич Плахотнюк (in Ukrainian) depict the same person, a controversial Moldavian businessman. For example, the US State Department officially mentions him for his involvement in significant corruption. It is impossible to build a full-fledged picture of their interests and connections without a useful multilingual name matching tool when assessing such persons.
Sergei Pugachev (Сергей Викторович Пугачёв in Cyrillic) known as Sergei Pugacheff, Serge Pugachoff, Sergey Pugachyov or Sergey Pugachyov a oncepowerful Russian oligarch fell on Moscow’s bad graces, is the key person of a global network with interests in France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Bahamas and Panama. The companies incorporated in multiple jurisdictions are in his name or connected to his wife Alexandra Tolstoi or his sons Victor and Alexander
Obviously, having the Pugachevs as clients can be a lucrative business for a private bank but can unfold unpredictable outcomes. In such situations, the traditional onboarding methods using face recognition would not provide the entire truth behind a person. Building a sound process that can correctly identify all versions of a name transliterated into several languages requires advanced methods using artificial intelligence.
Obviously, having the Pugachevs as clients can be a lucrative business for a private bank but can unfold unpredictable outcomes. In such situations, the traditional onboarding methods using face recognition would not provide the entire truth behind a person. Building a sound process that can correctly identify all versions of a name transliterated into several languages requires advanced methods using artificial intelligence.
