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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

MARALMA ACCOUNTING SERVICES N.V.

Company Name MARALMA ACCOUNTING SERVICES N.V.
Date of Registration 22nd March 2003
Company Objective 1A. THE PROVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND ACCOUNTING SERVICES AND
GIVING BEDRIJFSECONOMISCHE- AND FISCAL ADVICE;
B. GOVERNING REGISTERACCOUNTANTS PRACTICE BY PURPOSE
COMPETENT ACCOUNTANTS IN THEIR PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL
LIABILITY AND IN COMPLIANCE WITH ALL APPLICABLE TO THEM
LEGISLATION;
C. PARTICIPATING IN COMPANIES AND COMPANIES WITH
GOAL AS ABOVE MENTIONED IN SUB A, IN PARTICULAR
PARTICIPATE IN PRACTICE AUDITORS;
2. MANAGING CAPABILITIES AND ASSETS;
3. KEEPING UP MONITORING AND OBSERVING THE INTERESTS OF
THIRD PARTY ON FINANCIAL, ECONOMIC, TAX TECHNICAL OR ADMINISTRATIVE
FIELD;
4. THE PROVISION OF SERVICES AND SERVICES IN GENERAL AND IN PARTICULAR
THE PROVISION OF SERVICES IN ARUBA ESTABLISHED COMPANIES AND PEOPLE
IN APPLICATIONS FOR WORK AND RESIDENCE PERMITS;
5. ACTION WHICH insurance broker mediated BETWEEN
THE INSURED AND ALL INSURANCE COMPANIES TO PRESENT TO ARUBA
THE EXIT OF INSURANCE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE APPLICABLE
LICENCES;
6. THE RECOVERED FROM INSURANCE, mediating in PAYMENT OF
INJURY CLAIMS AND ADVISE OF CUSTOMERS IN INSURANCE BUSINESS IN THE
broadest sense;
7. THE ACTING AS AGENTE, DEPOT PARENT, LASTHEBSTER, ADMINISTRATIVE TRICE OR REPRESENTATIVE, WHETHER FOR INSURANCE AND REINSURANCE COMPANIES AS OF ANY individual or legal entity, THE ACTING AS TECHNICAL CONSULTANT IN INSURANCE FIELD, THE PREPARATION OF PLANS Insurance and Reinsurance DRAFTING claim settlements AND CLOSING OR unwinding INSURANCE CONTRACTS;
8. ACTION IF collection agency IN THE MOST ADVANCED WORD MEANING;
9. THE ACQUISITION, POSSESSION, DISPOSE, MANAGING AND DEVELOPMENT OF REAL ESTATE AND THE ACQUISITION, POSSESSION, DISPOSE AND MANAGING RIGHTS AND INTERESTS ON REAL ESTATE RELATE;
10. RENT, RENT, SUBLETTING, GRANTING OF MORTGAGE OR OTHERWISE OF RIGHTS OF SETTLED IN REAL ESTATE OR RELEVANT RIGHTS AND INTERESTS
11. TRADE IN REAL ESTATE AND GIVING ADVICE IN RELATION TO TRANSACTIONS IN REAL ESTATE;
12. Transferring the provision of guarantee and other guarantees and ownership - whether in
fiduciaire ownership or trust - or mortgage, pledge or otherwise encumber of
vermogensbestanddelen, a thing as security for the payment of the debts of
vennootschap and of the debts of third parties, whether in return contraprestatie;
13. ALL OR PART OF BUILDING IN PENSION
BEHOEVE OF EMPLOYEES OR FORMER EMPLOYEES OF THE COMPANY AND / OR THEIR SURVIVORS;
14. Acting as a finance and mediating AT
TOTSTANDKOMEN OF FINANCING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF TRANSACTIONS;
15. THE COMPANY MAY SUB 14 LISTED ACTIVITIES ONLY
VERRICHTEN UNDER ITS NORMAL BUSINESS - THAN
The SIGNIFICANTLY Acting as a finance - AND ON AN
ZODANIGE WAY THAT THEY DO NOT LIKE CREDIT UNDER THE
LANDSVERORDENING MONITORING CREDIT BEING CAN BE CONSIDERED. ALSO IS PULLING ON HER EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN TO APPLY TO THE PUBLIC AND / OR GE; THE SILENCE OF THE PUBLIC;
16. PARTICIPATING IN, SUPPORT GRANT ON OR ARE IN ANY WAY FURTHER INTEREST, OR THE DIRECTORS CARRY ON OR REPRESENTATIVES
WOORDIGING SIGHTING OF OTHER COMPANIES, AND COMPANIES
RECHTSPERSONEN, WHATEVER THE PURPOSE DESCRIPTION;
17. PERFORM ALL WORK AND ALL MEASURES WHICH THE ABOVE TO THE FULLEST MEANING CONNECTED, ARISING THEREFROM OR
DAARAAN FOSTER CAN.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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