1. Edge A→B: Palantir Technologies → Sequoia Capital (relationship: funding-type, "The facts note Sequoia Capital's extensive portfolio of companies with government relationships, which includes Palantir Technologies as a known portfolio company."). 2. Edge B→C: Sequoia Capital → Securities and Exchange Commission (relationship: authority-type, "Sequoia Capital has multiple SEC EDGAR filings from 2019 to 2024, including filings on consecutive days February 14-15, 2022, and a future-dated filing anomaly of 2026-02-02."). 3. Edge C→A: Securities and Exchange Commission → Palantir Technologies (relationship: benefit-type, "22 federal contracts for data services and software platforms"). Each edge is independently documented in the connections table (IDs 19140, 17082, 9250). Together they form a directed cycle: money flows from A, authority flows through B, benefit returns to A. This is the structural definition of a closed conflict-of-interest loop.
Anyone can re-execute this query to verify the published value. If the result diverges, the finding auto-flags as stale.
SELECT (
EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM connections WHERE ((entity_a_id=17 AND entity_b_id=119) OR (entity_a_id=119 AND entity_b_id=17)) AND (relationship_type ILIKE '%investor%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%donor%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%donation%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%contributor%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%contribution%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%funder%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%founder%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%co-founder%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%shareholder%'))
AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM connections WHERE ((entity_a_id=119 AND entity_b_id=391) OR (entity_a_id=391 AND entity_b_id=119)) AND (relationship_type ILIKE '%oversight%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%regulatory_oversight%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%regulatory%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%regulator%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%committee_membership%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%committee%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%chair%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%appointed_by%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%appointment%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%supervisor%'))
AND EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM connections WHERE ((entity_a_id=391 AND entity_b_id=17) OR (entity_a_id=17 AND entity_b_id=391)) AND (relationship_type ILIKE '%contractor%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%contractor_relationship%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%client%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%supplier%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%vendor%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%grant_recipient%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%employment%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%employee%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%former_employee%' OR relationship_type ILIKE '%consultant%'))
)::int AS value
Each question can be commissioned at the matching investigation tier.