corporate-ownership

name	corporate-ownership
description	Map a company's ownership chain, related entities, and director networks. Writes a conforming report (per report-conventions) to <engagement_dir>/corporate-ownership/<entity-slug>.md. Use for beneficial ownership investigation, M&A research, or understanding complex corporate structures. Full AU/NZ/UK/US registry coverage.
argument-hint	<company name or registration number> [engagement_dir]
user-invocable	true
allowed-tools	WebSearch, WebFetch, Read, Write, Bash

Map the corporate ownership structure for the named entity and write a conforming report.

Step 0: Resolve arguments

Parse $ARGUMENTS as <company name or registration number> [engagement_dir]. Trailing path-shaped token is the engagement directory; otherwise default to pwd. Resolve to an absolute path.

Step 1: Compute the output path

Subject slug: full company name, kebab-case, lowercase, ASCII (per report-conventions). Strip apostrophes and other punctuation; keep legal suffixes lower-cased (pty-ltd, inc, gmbh).

Examples:

• Acme Corp Pty Ltd → acme-corp-pty-ltd
• O'Brien Holdings Inc → obrien-holdings-inc

If the input is a registration number rather than a name, look up the legal name first and use that for the slug.

Output path: $ENG/corporate-ownership/<slug>.md

If a file already exists at that path, ask before overwriting.

Step 2: Stage the report from the template

mkdir -p "$ENG/corporate-ownership"
cp "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/templates/corporate-ownership.md" "$ENG/corporate-ownership/<slug>.md"

Replace placeholders in frontmatter:

Placeholder	Replace with
{SUBJECT}	The legal company name
{SUBTITLE}	Engagement directory basename, title-cased; drop the line if no useful inference
{DATE}	Today's ISO date

Step 3: Investigation

Primary registration

Look up the company's official registration record. This establishes the legal entity, jurisdiction, and current status.

Australia:

• ASIC Connect — company extract: directors (current + historical), shareholders for proprietary companies, registered office, registration date, status
• ABN Lookup — ABN/ACN cross-reference, business name registration, GST registration status

New Zealand:

• NZ Companies Office — director history, shareholding structure, registered office, annual returns, filing history

United Kingdom:

• Companies House — full filing history, director history, PSC register (persons with significant control = beneficial owners), accounts

United States:

• State secretary of state portals for private companies (coverage varies)
• SEC EDGAR for public companies — 10-K lists subsidiaries

Global cross-reference:

• OpenCorporates — cross-jurisdiction search, links entities across registries

Beneficial ownership

Identify who ultimately controls or owns the company beyond the registered directors.

Sources:

• UK PSC register (Companies House) — requires disclosure of beneficial owners holding 25%+ control
• ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database — offshore structures from leaked datasets (Panama Papers, Pandora Papers, etc.). Public data only.
• ABN Lookup for AU — parent entity relationships sometimes disclosed
• SEC 13D/13G filings for US public companies — major shareholder disclosures

Beneficial ownership disclosure requirements vary by jurisdiction. Absence of disclosed owners doesn't mean there aren't any — note this distinction.

Director networks

Map all director appointments across the entity:

• Identify current and historical directors from the primary registration
• For each director, search their other company appointments:
  • AU: ASIC Connect director search
  • NZ: NZ Companies Office director search
  • UK: Companies House director search
  • Global: OpenCorporates officer search

Director networks often reveal undisclosed relationships between apparently separate entities.

Subsidiary mapping

For the target company, identify subsidiaries and related entities:

• SEC 10-K Exhibit 21 (US public companies) — lists all subsidiaries
• Companies House group structures (UK)
• ASX/NZX annual report subsidiaries note (AU/NZ public companies)
• ASIC Connect — corporate group searches

Related entities

Look for entities that share:

• The same registered address
• The same directors (cross-reference Director networks above)
• The same registered agent
• Similar naming patterns

OpenCorporates "related companies" and ViewDNS.info reverse WHOIS (for digital footprint overlap) can help here.

Raise human-required steps explicitly

Beneficial-ownership tracing frequently reaches a registry that needs a paid extract, an in-person filing review, or a paywalled jurisdiction (offshore registries, certain US state portals). Silently skipping these is the bug to avoid. If the lookup is in scope and would meaningfully advance the ownership chain, raise it under ## Pending follow-up → Human-required steps. Name the source, the access path, the rough cost, and what it would resolve. The assessor decides whether to spend the money.

If another investigator skill would resolve a gap (/investigator:domain-intel to triangulate via registered address, /investigator:entity-footprint for the digital side, a follow-on /investigator:corporate-ownership run on a parent entity), name it under ## Pending follow-up → Skill-required steps.

Failed fetches (timeouts, rate limits) go under ## Pending follow-up → Re-fetches.

Step 4: Finalise the report

• Every template section heading must remain in the report. Use "None found." for empty sections rather than removing them.
• The three sub-sections under ## Pending follow-up (Human-required steps, Skill-required steps, Re-fetches) also stay. Write "None." under any that are empty.
• Document the jurisdiction for every entity in the ownership chain.
• Distinguish between registered ownership (what the registry shows) and beneficial ownership (who actually controls the entity).
• Note when an ownership chain terminates in a jurisdiction with limited disclosure requirements (offshore structures, certain US states) — this is a significant finding, not a gap.
• Replace placeholder source rows with actual sources, tagged with tier per source-quality.
• Set status: Final once complete; optionally set confidence: 0-4.

Rules

• Document the jurisdiction for every entity in the ownership chain.
• Distinguish between registered ownership (what the registry shows) and beneficial ownership (who actually controls the entity). These often differ.
• Note when an ownership chain terminates in a jurisdiction with limited disclosure requirements (offshore structures, certain US states) — this is a significant finding, not a gap.
• ICIJ data covers specific leaked datasets — it's a signal, not a comprehensive offshore registry. Absence from ICIJ doesn't mean no offshore structure.
• One file per invocation.
• Silently skipping a paid or human-required lookup is a bug. If the lookup exists and is in scope, raise it in ## Pending follow-up → Human-required steps.

Output

A single line: the absolute path to the written report.