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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

CARIBBEAN WORLD AIR TRANSPORT

Company Name CARIBBEAN WORLD AIR TRANSPORT
Date of Registration 29th July 2001
Company Objective 1. EXERCISING WITH THE NECESSARY LICENSES OF AN AVIATION COMPANY IN GENERAL, IN PARTICULAR:
A. THE (DO) GRANT IN THE AIR TRANSPORT ON OCCASION AND ORGANIZING AND SIGHTSEEING TOURS FOR BOTH FOREIGN AND THE LOCAL pUBLIC WHICH THE FLIGHTS both locally and internationally MADE;
B. THE (DO) PROVIDE FLIGHT CONTROL WITH REGARD TO LAW ENFORCEMENT, FIRE FIGHTING AND AMBULANCE SERVICES, AND ASSIST IN OPSPORINGEN- AND RESCUE OPERATIONS, DISASTERS AND DISASTERS, AND ASSISTANCE GRANT TO COMMUNICATIVE AND NAVIGATIEVE INSTRUMENTS; AD. THE (DO) MAINTAINED (DO) REPAIR (DO) revision, (DO) SUPPLIES AND (DO) HANDLING OF OWN OR OTHERWISE MANS AIRCRAFT, TO THE FULLEST SENSE;
D. THE (DO) GIVE PRACTICAL AND / OR TEACHING THEORY WITH RESPECT TO THE AIR OR NOT INTENDED FOR TRAINING FOR CERTAIN QUALIFICATIONS;
E. PROVIDING ASSISTANCE IN CONSTRUCTION, REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE OF BOTH LAND AND IN THE AIR;
F. IT FOR OWN ACCOUNT OR THIRD PARTIES TO ADVERTISING FLIGHTS AND AERIAL PARK, PERFORM VNA air measurements, AND THE BEST BOATING CROPS WITH INSECTICIDES;
G. THE ACQUISITION, POSSESSION, MANAGE, RENT, RENT, chartering out vessels, OBJECTIONS, STRANGERS and chartering of aircraft, BOTH FOR ITS OWN ACCOUNT AND ALSO ON BEHALF OF THIRD PARTIES;
H. TRADE INCLUDING THE GREAT, small, IMPORT, EXPORT AND AGENTUREN- COMMISSIEHNADEL AND IN ALL PARTS AND INSTRUMENTS RELATED TO AIRCRAFT;
I. THE COMMITMENT OF JOINT VENTURES, POOL AGREEMENT AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THE MANAGEMENT AND / OR MANAGEMENT OF ANY COMPANY WITH SIMILAR OR RELATED PURPOSES.
2. PARTICIPATING IN THE MANAGEMENT AND CARRY ON OTHER COMPANIES OR COMPANIES WHATEVER THEIR PURPOSE.
3. 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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