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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

S.A. AVISTA AVV

Company Name S.A. AVISTA AVV
Date of Registration 19th April 1995
Company Objective a.     the engaged in investing in, acquiring and leasing, and have, like property, technical supplies and roerend- and properties which are used by companies in the service industry, and entering, possession and have lease agreements with respect to such technical requirements and roerend- and real estate;

    the invest in, purchase and sales.;

I.     technische supplies and both movable and immovable property and / or other duties on this equipment, movable and immovable property relate;

II.     kapitaalsdeelnemingen ( "equity interests") including, but not limited to, stock options or "warrants" subscription rights to ordinary shares and convertible securities in companies such supplies, movable and real estate leasing

C     the invest its assets by the company on a temporary basis, and the feature, common stock, stock options, "warrants", subscription rights, convertible securities, debt instruments ( "bonds and debentures"), deposit certificates. , participation certificates and other forms of security;.

d     the obtaining financing for the company, its activities and interests, through the borrowing of funds, subject to the provisions of the last sentence of Article 2 first section g

e     the providing services to businesses and companies;..

f     the provide all that is necessary or conducive to the fulfillment of the vorenonschreven purpose or which therefore in the broadest sense holds;

g     the act as finance and mediating in the realization of financing of all transactions, provided that the company can only carry out these activities as part of its normal business operations -. Than the largely act as finance company - and in such a way that theory not as a credit institution as referred to in the National Ordinance supervision banking and credit can be considered. Also, it is expressly forbidden to raise funds from the public and / or funds to turn off the public;

h.     The invest directly or indirectly, of its assets in real estate and rights to acquire, own, manage, rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, drainage, develop, cultivate, alienate, encumber and exploit real goods, including immovable property for the agriculture and livestock, and building roads, dikes, railroad tracks and similar works on immovable property situated everything outside Aruba.

i.     The setting bail and other guarantees and ownership transferring 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.

j .     The driving international trade outside Aruba and perform and import of goods from and to countries outside Aruba

k     the obtain:...
a     opbrengsten arising from the sale or donation 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.;
e.     The procurement, mining, production, processing and manufacture of and trading in (including import and export) raw materials, minerals and metals, semi-finished and finished products of any kind and under whatever name.

m.     The represent and defend interests of third parties.

n. perform     The as principal, agent, broker, manager, director and / or administrator of all that related to the foregoing, relating thereto or necessary or useful purpose are.

o.     The company is entitled to everything that can be useful to achieve its purpose or with it in the broadest sense of the term, including acting as a holding company and participating in any other company or partnership regardless of its purpose.

2.     The company is not authorized to participate in the Aruban economic traffic, except for the performance of those acts that are necessary for keeping an office in Aruba.

3.     Voorts allowed the company both in and outside of Aruba does not operate as a credit institution or credit union as defined in the Landsverordenig Banking Supervision of the credit System.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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