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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

WINDTECH ARUBA

Company Name WINDTECH ARUBA
Date of Registration 7th July 2003
Company Objective A .it CONSTRUCTION, MAINTAINED AND EXPLOIT OF ESTABLISHMENTS TO THE
PRODUCING, OPERATE, REPAIR, ACQUISITION, PROCESSING, STORING,
SELL, SUPPLY, MARKETING, INSTALLATION, INSTALL, CONSTRUCT,
CONNECTING THE UPGRADE AND / OR PROMOTION, RENOVATING , REVISION,
DISMANTLING, DISTRIBUTE OR ALTERNATIVE SOLAR AND
WIND ENERGY AND WIND ENERGY SYSTEMS AND TESTING AND
STATEMENTS OF THE ABOVE PROVIDED;
B.HET DELIVERING PROJECTS RELATED TO SOLAR
WIND AND WIND ENERGY SYSTEMS AND THE MATTER OF ACQUISITION
TECHNOLOGY TO PROVIDE THAT, CONSTRUCT, INSTALL, commissioning and
THUS PROVIDE RELATED SERVICES;
C.HET DELIVERY OF OPINIONS ON SAID SOLAR AND ANY
OTHER WIND, THE DEVELOPMENT AS WELL AS THE PURPOSE OF
STUDIES, PERFORMANCES, FEASIBILITY STUDIES, evalutions PROMOTION AND
TECHNICAL CONTROL, RESPECT THE PROGRESS AND MODERNIZATION
SOLAR AND ANY OTHER WIND ENERGY SYSTEM;
D.HET EXPLOIT OF SO-CALLED 'WIND FARMS ":
E.HET PROVIDE OPERATIONS WHICH FOSTER MAY BE FOR
ABOVE OR ANY THERETO IN CONNECTION;
F ALL THESE TO THE FULLEST MEANING OF THE WORD; \. n2.2.ONDER THE AIM OF THE COMPANY IS ALSO INCLUDED THE FOUNDING AND
ACQUISITION OF THE PARTICIPATING IN THE WORK WITH AND USE OF
MANAGEMENT OF OTHER COMPANIES, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHICH THE
COMPANY IN GROUP IS CONNECTED, AND THE (DO) fINANCE
ALSO THROUGH THE PROVISION OF sECURITIES, INCLUDING BEGRPEN THE
IS jOINTLY LIABLE FOR
ITS AFFILIATES
COMPANIES AND / OR OTHER COMPANIES IN WHICH THE COMPANY IN GROUP IS CONNECTED;
2.3.BINNEN ITS PURPOSE, THE COMPANY all that PROVIDE WHAT THIS
PURPOSE TO THE FULLEST MEANING RELATED BOTH FOR ITS OWN ACCOUNT AND FOR
THIRD PARTIES.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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