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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

H T C TRUST

Company Name H T C TRUST
Date of Registration 11th October 1999
Company Objective A.    to act as A trustee, EXecutor AND administrator;
B.    to act as a trust company, as well as to participate in, and to manage, run, and administer other enterprises, corporations and legal entities LOCALLY AND ABROAD; to look after the interests of shareholders, bondholders, or other creditors in corporations or groups thereof; to represent and to look after the interests of third parties; to represent and to look after the interests of third parties, both in the widest sense and in particular; to exercise administrative and supervisory duties in other corporations and legal entities, irrespective of their objective;
C.    to act as an intermediary in the formation, EXPANSION and amendment of the articles incorporation of other corporations and legal entities, EXECUTED BY THIRD PARTIES LOCALLY AND ABROAD; to act as an intermediary in the formation and amendment of the articles incorporation OF Aruba Exempt Companies AS WELL AS TO ACT AS REPRESENTATIVE AND DIRECTOR OF AND to exercise administrative and supervisory duties in ARUBA EXEMPT COMPANIES; other corporations and legal entities, irrespective of their objective; to act a ADMINISTRATOR, executor, REceiver, MANAGEMENT OR TRUSTEE;
D. for loans to act as trustee of the rights and interests of creditors and as such, to register
collateral securities in behalf of its creditors and to possess securities; to promote the financial, ECONOMICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE interests of third parties in and outside aruba; to give legal, socio-economic and financial advice; to transfer on her name personal and real property on behalf of third parties and the nagement and administration thereof; TO COLLECT, HOLD IN A CURRENT ACCOUNT, INVEST, SAVE AND KEEP ON DEPOSIT MONIES OF THIRD PARTIES.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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