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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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.

V & F LEASE N.V.

Company Name V & F LEASE N.V.
Date of Registration 27th September 1992
Company Objective 1.     The acquire, own, manage, sell, exchange, transfer, dispose of, issue and trading of shares and other securities in respect of, bonds, funds, promissory notes, debentures, notes and other debt securities and other securities, including, but sell without restriction to a bearish securities, buying on margin securities, pledging securities, engage in arbitrage transactions, entering into, buying and selling options, puts and calls, participate in the issuance of securities which are not listed on a stock exchange, "letter stocks" and marketable securities of real estate companies, either on own account or as intermediary for its own account or on behalf of third parties.
2     The setting bail and other guarantees and the ownership transfer whether in fiduciary or trust or mortgage, pledge or otherwise encumber assets, all this as security for the payment of the debts of the company and the debts of third parties, whether in return contraprestatie .
3     the act as finance and mediating in the realization of financing of all transactions;
4     the borrowing and issuing debentures therefor, and the lending of funds and in any way to provide security for the benefit of third parties;
5     the leasing of movable assets such as vehicles, office equipment and fixtures and the like, all this based on both "financial" and "operational" leasing;

6.     the obtain:.
a     opbrengsten arising from the disposal of the surrender of the right to use copyrights, patents, designs, secret process or recipes, trademarks and similar matters ;

b.     royalties, including rent related to movies or in respect of the use of industrial, commercial or scientific equipment, as well as with regard to the operation of a mine or quarry or any other natural resource and other real affairs;
c     vergoedingen for the provision of technical assistance.;
7     the directly or indirectly invest its funds in real estate and rights to acquire, own, manage, rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, drainage, develop, cultivate, alienate, encumber, exploit Real goods including immovable property intended for the agricultural and livestock, and building roads, dikes and similar works on immovable property;
8     The procurement, mining, production, processing and manufacturing and trading (including import and export) raw materials, minerals and metals, semi-finished and finished products of any kind and under whatever name.
9     The represent and defend interests of third parties.

E.EA WILL BE CARRIED OUT SO FAR THIS WORK OUT OF ARUBA AND ONLY FOR THE BENEFIT OF NON-RESIDENTS.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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