Offshore A-Z is a digital repository of companies operating across major tax havens. Offshore A-Z exploits the inscrutability of such companies to speculate on their possible nature and intent. Each company listed on here is real, but the information surrounding these consist of both actual records, obtained by dmstfctn, and speculative images and mission statements, generated by algorithms.

Tax havens, or secrecy jurisdictions, employ laws and corporate regulations different from those of most jurisdictions, using secrecy as a prime tool. Furthermore, the agents operating offshore on behalf of clients elsewhere have been observed by dmstfctn to willfully introduce mistakes in the records held on the companies they help forming. (Offshore Investigation Vehicle)

When offshore companies are but a bundle of papers held in private storages, these practices contribute to a number of possible configurations of any given offshore company, whose records are at once factually correct and conveniently flawed.

Offshore A-Z plays with the idea that truth is not one nor static, and that it does not need to be upheld equally at all times or in all fora.

Obtaining the data

The data contained within Offshore A-Z comes from a number of sources. Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency. Employing data scraping techniques, dmstfctn extracted records on hundreds of thousands of companies appearing in a number of such registrars.

Yielding varying amounts of information, and naturally full of gaps - sometimes full company details and descriptions, sometimes little more than a name - the records were cross referenced with data from the ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks as well as Financial Secrecy Index scores from the Tax Justice Network, and compiled into a single searchable database.

Training the algorithms

Algorithms were then trained to fill in the gaps in information. Using keywords from the company’s records as a trigger, the algorithms associate images with each nondescript company and complete missing fields by guessing possible incorporation dates or by generating corporate mission statement via a simple neural network. The coherency and accuracy of the neural network is directly undermined by the opaque source material, or incomplete input records. Finally, companies previously named in the Offshore Leaks ( for example) are hyperlinked to the relevant entry on the ICIJ database, allowing user to investigate further.

Compiling the template

The resulting information is autonomously built into a Web 2.0 page, employing a visual grammar similar to that used by existing registrars of companies. However, under intense scrutiny, the template mealts away revealing warm hues and floating forms.

This cycle of actions is repeated for each unreleased company found in the database and publicly announced by a Twitter bot.

Zooming in

Among the companies listed on the Offshore A-Z, a few appearing to be embedded in complex offshore vehicles were further investigated, resulting in three stories focusing on the funding behind Leave.EU, the corporate tax-avoidance of Barclays and the colonial origins of HSBC.

Offshore A-Z is a project by dmstfctn.

U.S.A. MORTGAGE FUND

Company Name U.S.A. MORTGAGE FUND
Date of Registration 24th September 1991
Company Objective 1.     The company aims to bring about a stable income by investing in a portfolio consisting primarily of securities whose value is determined in United States dollars, including those issued or guaranteed by private and public corporations, including companies , government agencies and government bodies of the United States, banks and other instelllingen

    In connection therewith the Company will be authorized to:.

(i) obtain tthe, own, manage and dispose of securities, including also includes participation certificates, equities (both normal and with a high percentage of preference), bonds, debentures, "bills", "equipment lease certificates", "equipment trust certificate", conditional sales contracts, debt, indebtedness, bills, certificates of deposit, promissory notes , tradable goods ( "commodities"), commodity options, commodity futures, options, securities which are offered by private ( "private placement securities"), repurchase agreements ( "repurchase agreements"), convertible securities and any other transferable securities, money market instruments, rights , warrants and (put and call) claims relating thereto;

(ii)     the borrowing of funds and the investment of the funds thus obtained in accordance with the purpose of the Company and the provision of liens on its property in respect of such loans;

(iii)     the acquiring, possessing and selling interests in loans, including participations therein and transfers thereof;

(iv)     the entering into currency swap ( "currency exchange" and forward currency exchange ") contracts and forward exchange contracts (" currency futures ") contracts, and buying and exercising currency put and call options, and entering into rentepercentage- hedge "swap" ( "interest rate swap") contracts and buying and selling "caps" and "floors" in order currency exchange rate risks ( "currency exchange rate risks") and to protect themselves against in connection with its investments denominated in currencies other than United States dollars;

(v)     the buying, owning and selling real estate, interests in real estate or mortgages and mortgage-backed securities ( "mortgage backed securities") and as collateral serving hypotheciare obligations ( "collateralized mortgage obligations");

(vi)     the provide all that is necessary or conducive holds for the fulfillment of the above-described purpose or which therefore in the broadest sense.

2.     The company may, both in and out of Aruba, not act as a credit institution or credit union, as defined in the Ordinance supervision banking and credit. The company may not participate in the Aruban economic transactions with the exception of those acts that are necessary for keeping an office in Aruba.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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