Tipping-off controls explained
Tipping off — letting a client know they are under review or that a report has been filed on them — can defeat an investigation before it starts. Ustawi treats this as an access-control problem: STR cases and screening detail are visible only to designated compliance roles, so most staff never learn a case exists.
Why tipping off is prohibited
If a subject learns they are being reported, they can move funds, destroy records, or disappear before the authorities act. That is why informing a client that an STR has been filed — or that they are under active review — is prohibited. The prohibition only works if the information is genuinely contained.
How the system enforces it
- STR case records and related screening detail are restricted to designated compliance roles.
- Staff outside the compliance function cannot see that a client is under review, so they cannot inadvertently reveal it.
- Enforcement is through role-based access controls — the same fail-closed model that hides unauthorized features rather than merely disabling them.
- Tenant admins are responsible for assigning these compliance roles correctly within their own staff structure.
The admin's part
The controls are only as tight as the role assignments behind them. If a role that should not see STR cases is granted that visibility, the containment weakens — so tipping-off protection is a shared responsibility between the platform's enforcement and the tenant's role hygiene. This is why sensitive grants themselves run through dual-control.
Tipping-off controls are underpinned by the access model in the Staff, Admin & Security app — capability-based roles decide who can ever see an STR case.