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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEST CONTROL N.V.

Company Name HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEST CONTROL N.V.
Date of Registration 28th August 2000
Company Objective A. THE EXPLOITATION OF A COMPANY FOR destroying vermin TO THE FULLEST SENSE;
B. IN GENERAL THE IMPORT, EXPORT, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL, THE AGENTUREN-, commission AND TRANSIT TRADE IN ALL THEM ELIGIBLE PROPERTY AND AFFAIRS AND IN PARTICULAR IN ALL KINDS OF CHEMICAL AND OTHER pesticides AND IN ALL KINDS OF PLANTS AND TREES , bUSHES, SEEDS AND STATE AND HORTICULTURAL PRODUCTS; AD. THE EXPLOITATION OF A BUSINESS FOCUSED ON GROWING PLANTS AND MAINTENANCE OF GARDENS, THE FOREGOING, TO THE FULLEST SENSE;
D. THE EXERCISE OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND horticultural;
E. CLEANING AND DISINFECTING WELL AS CHEMICAL MECHANICAL OF CONSTRUCTION, RAW and dismantlers WORKS AND OTHER BUILDINGS, INDUSTRIAL INSTALLATIONS, VESSELS, MARINE EQUIPMENT, machinery TECHNICAL AND INSTALLATION OF ALL KINDS;
F. ALL OR PART OF BUILDING AND PENSION BENEFIT OF EMPLOYEES OR FORMER EMPLOYEES OF THE COMPANY AND / OR THEIR SURVIVORS;
G. Acting as a finance and mediating in THE CREATION OF FINANCING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF TRANSACTIONS;
H. THE COMPANY MAY SUB G LISTED ACTIVITIES ONLY BE MADE IN THE CONTEXT OF ITS NORMAL BUSINESS - OTHER THAN THE ACTION SIGNIFICANTLY as finance companies - AND IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT CAN NOT BE REGARDED AS CREDIT INSTITUTIONS UNDER THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION CREDIT BEING. ALSO IN PULLING ON HER IS EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND / OR APPLY TO TURN OUT TO THE PUBLIC;
I. PARTICIPATING IN, SUPPORT GRANT ON OR IN ANY WAY FURTHER INTEREST, OR THE DIRECTORS CARRIED OVER OR REPRESENTATION SIGHTING OF OTHER COMPANIES, COMPANIES AND LEGAL PERSONS, REGARDLESS OF THE TARGET DEFINITION;
J PERFORM ALL WORK AND ALL MEASURES WHICH THE ABOVE TO THE FULLEST MEANING IN CONNECTION, ARISING THEREFROM OR FOSTER THEM BE.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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