Smári McCarthy
Icelandic-Irish politician and technologist; former Pirate Party MP in the Icelandic parliament (2016-2021); CTO of OCCRP (2014-2016), where he helped build the Investigative Dashboard project used to process leaked documents for the Panama Papers investigation. Did not seek re-election in 2021 and later co-founded the Stratis Intelligence data-fusion engine with Ingvar Helgason.
As a co-founder of Iceland's Pirate Party (2012) and Member of the Althing for the South Constituency from 2016 to 2021, McCarthy focused on transparency, digital rights, and direct-democracy legislation, chairing the party from 2019. Before entering parliament he was chief technologist at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, where he helped build the Investigative Dashboard project, the data-linking toolset used to process leaked documents for the Panama Papers investigation (the platform later incorporated the Aleph search engine, built primarily by OCCRP's Friedrich Lindenberg). McCarthy did not seek re-election to the Althingi in 2021 and remained active as Pirate Party chair while beginning work on the data-linking engine that became Stratis, co-founding Stratis Intelligence with Ingvar Helgason ahead of its September 2025 public launch.
Overview
- Role
- Co-Founder, Stratis Intelligence
- Based in
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- Prior experience
- Icelandic Parliament (MP), Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (CTO)
- www.linkedin.com/in/smarimc/
Affiliated funds0
No linked records yet.
Frequently asked
- Who is Smári McCarthy?
- As a co-founder of Iceland's Pirate Party (2012) and Member of the Althing for the South Constituency from 2016 to 2021, McCarthy focused on transparency, digital rights, and direct-democracy legislation, chairing the party from 2019. Before entering parliament he was chief technologist at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, where he helped build the Investigative Dashboard project, the data-linking toolset used to process leaked documents for the Panama Papers investigation (the platform later incorporated the Aleph search engine, built primarily by OCCRP's Friedrich Lindenberg). McCarthy did not seek re-election to the Althingi in 2021 and remained active as Pirate Party chair while beginning work on the data-linking engine that became Stratis, co-founding Stratis Intelligence with Ingvar Helgason ahead of its September 2025 public launch.
- What is Smári McCarthy's role?
- Smári McCarthy is Co-Founder, Stratis Intelligence, based in Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Where did Smári McCarthy work before?
- Smári McCarthy's prior roles include Icelandic Parliament (MP), Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (CTO).
Sources & citations3
Each claim links to its underlying source. Confidence reflects how directly the source supports the claim.
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Foreign Affairs Committee since 2017, Economic Affairs and Trade Committee since 2018, EFTA/EEA delegation chair since 2017, party chair since 2019, MP for South Constituency 2016-2021
Althingi (Icelandic Parliament): Smári McCarthy — Members of ParliamentVerified2026-08-09 - 2
McCarthy announced in Sept 2020 he would not run in the 2021 election, a year ahead of the vote -- a voluntary decision, not an electoral loss
Kjarninn: Helgi Hrafn og Smári McCarthy ætla ekki að bjóða sig fram í næstu kosningumVerified2020-09-26 - 3
Smári McCarthy, former Icelandic Pirate Party MP and OCCRP CTO, co-founded Stratis Intelligence with Ingvar Helgason
Resilience Media: Stratis, a mysterious Icelandic startup, emerges from stealth to build a 'Palantir for Europe'Verified2025-09-01