[mb5]

This is where the article is insufficiently clear. Lists of people who are under investigation for fraud is definitely something banks keep quiet, for the reason you mentioned. But as a sibling comment says, sanctions lists are public, as are records of people convicted of relevant crimes in most (all?) jusrisdictions. So what kind of lists are these? Because the article's line about "individuals who were sanctioned as recently as this year" is hardly exciting - the UK sanctions list has people sanctioned today, 18 April.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uk-sanctions-...

[somelamer567]

Fairly sure that anything super sensitive like that won’t make it into the World-Check datafile. The records in there are mostly already public information if you know where to look

[PeterStuer]

These are hundreds of lists from all over the world updated a few times a day. They are very diverse ranging from known terrorist fronts to things as benign as a locally elected politician. Assuming everyone mentioned in the DB was somehow involved in fraud or criminal activity would be a gross misrepresentation. Financial institutions and other businesses use them in KYC/AML, but also for flagging accounts that might need some white glove /red carpet treatment as mistakes made on those could lead to bad press.