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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

SHADOW CREEK A.V.V.

Company Name SHADOW CREEK A.V.V.
Date of Registration 17th August 2001
Company Objective 1.A.THE IMPORTATION AND EXPORTATION OF, THE WHOLESALE TRADE IN, THE LEASE OF,
THE RETAIL AND AGENCY TRADE IN ALL SORTS OF ELECTRIC AND ELECTRONIC
EQUIPMENT, INCLUDING, WITHOUT BEING LIMITED THERETO, TELEPHONE
EQUIPMENT, COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT, COMPUTERS, COMPUTER PARTS,
PERIPHERAL EQUIPMENT, AND OTHER COMPUTER ACCESSORIES, SUCH AS
COMPUTER FURNITURE, COMPUTER BOOKS, COMPUTER OFFICE SUPPLIES, AND
SOFTWARE;
B.TO INSTALL AUTOMATION EQUIPMENT AND DATA COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AND ALL
OTHER EQUIPMENT RELATED THERETO;
C.TO MAINTAIN AUTOMATION EQUIPMENT SYSTEMS, SOFTWARE, AND DATA
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS;
D.TO RENDER ASSISTANCE AND ALL SORTS OF SERVICES TO OFFICES AND
COMPANIES, SUCH AS, WITHOUT BEING LIMITED THERETO, MAKING PHOTOCOPIES,
PRINTED MATER, SCANNING, AND DATA COMMUNICATION;
E.TO ADVISE AND CAUSE ADVICE TO BE GIVEN ON AUTOMATION AND COMMUNICATION
MATTERS, ANALYSING SYSTEMS, PROGRAMMING, AND ELECTRONIC SECURITY;
F.TO DEVELOP AND CAUSE TO BE DEVELOPED SYSTEMS, SOFTWARE, DATA
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AND ELECTRONIC SECURITY;
G.TO ORGANIZE AND CAUSE TO BE ORGANIZED SEMINARS, COURSES, AND TRAINING IN
THE USE OF AUTOMATION EQUIPMENT, SOFTWARE, AND DATA COMMUNICATION
MEANS;
H.TO OPERATE ELECTRONIC GAMES AND AMUSEMENT;
I. TO OPERATE THE ACCESS TO THE WORLD WIDE WEB AND ALL OTHER MULTIMEDIA
NETWORKS AND ACTIVITIES;
J.TO LEASE AND OTHERWISE FINANCE COMPUTER EQUIPMENT AND SOFTWARE, AS
WELL AS TO ACT AS AN INTERMEDIARY IN THE PROVISION OF COMPUTER
TIME-SHARING;
K.TO RENDER SERVICES TO THIRDS IN THE CARE AND ORGANIZATION OF ALL THAT IS
RELATED TO BOTH WRITTEN AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA;
L.TO PROMOTE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, TO RENDER SERVICES, AND TO LAUNCH
PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND ARTICLES OF WHATEVER NATURE, AND HIS BOTH FOR
THE ACCOUNT OF THIRDS AND FOR OWN ACCOUNT;
M.TO CARRY OUT ELECTRONIC COMMERCE;
N.TO SELL ADVERTISEMENTS/PROMOTION ON THE INTERNET;
O.TO MAKE, SUPPORT, AND OPERATE ACCESS SYSTEMS TO THE ELECTRONIC
HIGHWAY (THE INTERNET);
P.TO APPLY FOR, TO ACQUIRE, AND TO HOLD (POSSIBLY REQUIRED) PERMITS
NECESSARY FOR THE POSSESSION OF EQUIPMENT REQUIRED FOR THE MAKING,
MAINTENANCE, AND OPERATION OF ACCESS SYSTEMS TO THE INTERNET;
Q.TO HOOK UP SUBSCRIBERS AND/OR THIRD PARTIES AUTHORIZED BY THEM TO THE
ACCESS SYSTEMS OF THE INTERNET FOR A CONSIDERATION;
R. to invest its assets directly or indirectly in real property and rights, to acquire, own, hire, let,
lease, rent, divide, drain, reclaim, develop, improve, cultivate, build on, sell or otherwise
alienate, mortgage or otherwise encumber real property and to construct infrastructural
works like roads, pipes and similar works on real estate;
S. to invest its assets in securities, including shares and other certificates of participation and
bonds, as well as in other interestbearing claims however denominated and in any and all
forms;
T. to acquire:
i.    revenues, derived from the alienation or leasing of right to use copyrights, patents,
designs, secret processes or formulae, trademarks and other analogous property;
ii.    royalties, including rentals, in respect of motions picture films or for the use of industrial,
commercial or scientific equipment, as well as relating to operation of mine or quarry or
of any other extraction of natural resources and other immovable properties;
Iii.    considerations paid for technical assistance;
U.    to guarantee or otherwise secure, and to transfer in ownership, to mortgage, to pledge
Or otherwise encumber assets as security for the obligations of the money and for the
Obligations of third parties, with or without consideration;
V.    to trade which includes wholesale, intermediate trade and the futures dealings and also
the import and export of raw materials, metals, minerals, organic substances,
semi-finished products and finished products of whatever nature and under whatever
name;
W.     to act as finance company and as intermediary in effecting financing of transactions. The
corporation can exclusively perform these activities within the framework of its normal
business operations not with importance to act as finance company that in such a way
that it cannot be deemed a credit institution as meant in the State Ordinance Supervision
Banking and Credit System. Furthermore, its is explicitly prohibited from attracting money
from the public and/or to lend out money to the public;
2.    The corporation may not be active in or outside of Aruba as a credit institution or credit
association as referred to in the Bank and Credit system Supervision Act. The corporation
may not participate in the Aruban commercial traffic, except for those transactions which are
necessary to have an office in Aruba.
3.    The corporation is authorized to do any and all things that may be useful or necessary for the
attainment of its objects, or that is connected therewith in the widest sense of the word,
including that participation in any other venture or corporation, as well as the performance of
any other act of a commercial, industrial and financial nature.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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