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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

X.L. MANAGEMENT SERVICES NV

Company Name X.L. MANAGEMENT SERVICES NV
Date of Registration 30th July 1995
Company Objective A.     the act as a management and service bureau;
    verlenen mediation in the establishment of joint-stock companies, Aruba
Exempt Companies and other companies and businesses, as well as
to change the statutes.;
c.     the exercising administrative. management and supervisory positions at nameless
companies, Aruba Exempt Company and other companies and
companies as well as the conduct of the administration thereof;
d     ipped reason as legal representative of Aruba Exempt Companies.;
e     verstrekken advice and assistance in managing corporate development and
and development projects.;
f     behartigen of financial interests of third parties outside Aruba.;
g     als administration work and in connection therewith issue certificates
of its registered shares.;
h     bij loans perceive as a trustee of the rights and interests of creditors and
so doing to her name of collateral in favor of animal
creditors and to take possession of collateral.;
i     als manageress, trustee, administrator, caretaker, liquidator star and
executrix-testamentary.;
j     geven advice on legal, economic and tax.;
k     the as collection agencies are employed and as such issue of bearer certificates or
the name of its registered shares, bonds and its assigned
claims.; En     the collection of the above claims, third party claims and
shares and bonds to pay dividends and interest, and the payment thereof.; .
m     the behalf of third parties in its name taking property and
administer these matters;
n.     the providing service and services in the field of industrial relations and the
organization of the factor labor, organizational development, recruitment, selection and
appointment of personnel, labor and personnel and training and training
staff;
o.     the provide that all activities connected therewith or before
useful including participating in other joint-stock company and
enterprises regardless of their purpose and by any means such a part
happens.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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