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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

FLASH ADMINISTRATION SERVICES

Company Name FLASH ADMINISTRATION SERVICES
Date of Registration 17th April 2000
Company Objective 1. EXERCISING AN ADMINISTRATION OFFICE IN broadest sense.
2. THE PROVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES - AS THE SETTING UP OF AN EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION AND ACCOUNTING, THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ADMINISTRATION AND THE PREPARATION OF ANNUAL ACCOUNTS, THE FOREGOING THE FULLEST SENSE
3.. THE PROVISION OF SERVICES AND CARE OF OPINIONS, LESSONS, COURSES AND TRAINING financial-, economic-, TAX-technical, administrative, RELATION- PUBLIC AND FIELD ORGANIZATION AND THE PROVISION OF SERVICES IN THE FIELD OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS.
4. IT AS A collection agency EMPLOYED AND AS SUCH ISSUE OF CERTIFICATES OR BEARER OF NAME of- AT THE REGISTERED SHARES, BONDS AND ITS assigned claims.
5. Collecting ABOVE ACTIONS, CLAIMS OF THIRD PARTIES AND TO PAY FOR SHARES AND DEBENTURES AND DIVIDENDS INTEREST AND THE PAYMENT THEREOF.
6. THE EXERCISE OF ONE OR MORE CANDY SHOPS, KNOWN AS A SNACK SHOP, THE FOREGOING REQUIREMENTS IN COMPLIANCE WITH ALL APPLICABLE LICENCE.
7. THE ON BEHALF OF THIRD PARTIES ON HER NAME TAKEN OF MOVABLE AND REAL ESTATE AND THAT MATTERS adminstation.
8. THE PROVISION OF SERVICE AND SERVICES IN THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FACTOR WORK, THE ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT, THE RECRUITMENT, SELECTION AND APPOINTMENT OF PERSONNEL, THE LABOUR AND HUMAN RESOURCES AND EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF PERSONNEL, THE FOREGOING IN PARTICULARLY WITH RESPECT TO PERSONNEL ON aDMINISTRATIVE LEVEL.
9. THE (DO) OPERATING AND (DO) LEADING ADVIESBUREAUX (CONSULTANCY OFFICES) AND ADVISORY CENTRES FOR COMMERCIAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL ORGANISATIONS.
10. GIVING ADVICE IN MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT.
11. PARTICIPATING IN OTHER COMPANIES AND COMPANIES WHATEVER THEIR PURPOSE.
12. THE PROVISION OF ALL MEASURES WHICH ARE CONNECTED WITH THE FOREGOING, EVERYTHING TO THE FULLEST SENSE.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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