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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

GLOBAL FORTUNE CORPORATION N.V.

Company Name GLOBAL FORTUNE CORPORATION N.V.
Date of Registration 27th February 1997
Company Objective a.     the from Aruba exercise of an off-shore casino company, using the same computer software, hardware, payment systems and instruments, as Virtual Casinos Gaming and Wagering Corporation NV, by phone (audio / data / video) or other multimedia telecommunications via the international telecommunications network terminating at an outer Aruba established by Virtual Casinos Gaming and Wagering Corporation NV to be designated audio / text / video (multimedia) platform, taking particular organizing and giving opportunity to all types of gambling and games of chance, such as blackjack, roulette, poker, craps, 7/11, chemin de fer, baccarat, slots, keno, lotteries, bingo, sports matches and events and betting on games and any other games of chance and games of chance that are currently exercisable or in the future will be widespread, all this exclusively outside Aruba and in compliance with the laws of the countries where these activities will be launched.

n.     dat mentioned activities from Aruba organized outside Aruba residents will be by telephone ( audio / data) or other multimedia telecommunication via the international telecommunications network, terminating on the platform of Mona Call Sam in the Principality of Monaco or any other outside Aruba established by Virtual Casinos Gaming and Wagering designate Corporation NV audio / text / video (multimedia) platform, using EDI / computer software, hardware, payment systems and instruments, taking into account the laws of the countries in which these activities marketed, and will be exercised.

c. company tdat will only be entitled to achieve its purpose as under paragraphs 1, 2, aforementioned, by using of Virtual Casinos Gaming and Wagering Corporation NV, belonging rights and licenses, all this with due observance of the laws of Aruba and the countries where these activities will be launched.

Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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