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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

I.T.R. REALTY

Company Name I.T.R. REALTY
Date of Registration 6th November 2001
Company Objective 2.1.A. THE ACQUISITION, disposal, encumbrance, HAVE, DO, FOR SALE and rent, OPERATING AND LEASE OF PROPERTY respectively RIGHTS IN REAL ESTATE;
B. THE (RE) SELL, BUY, RENT, RENT, LEASE OF HOUSEHOLD GOODS AND OF intangible property, ESPECIALLY (membership) RIGHTS REGARDING THE USE OF PROPERTY, WHETHER IN / FOR A FIXED PERIOD OF TIME, KNOWN AS (TIMESHARE) ; AD. The negotiation MISCELLANEOUS OPERATIONS ON BOTH AS HOUSEHOLD REAL ESTATE;
D. DRAFTING building programs, designing, calculating, WORKING AND PREPARATION OF PROJECTS FOR COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, civil and architectural AREA AND THE GUIDE, DINING CHOIR OF DIRECTORS CARRY AND KEEPING CONTROL OVER THESE PROJECTS;
E. BANKING OF ITS RESOURCES IN SECURITIES AS SHARES AND OTHER SECURITIES OF JUSTICE PART AND BONDS AND OTHER INTEREST-BEARING IN SCHUL CLAIMS UNDER ANY NAME AND ANY FORM;
F. GIVING ADVICE IN THE FIELD OF TOURISM IN GENERAL AND OF ALL PROVIDE THAT THE TOURIST INDUSTRY IS IN SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGE;
AL FOREGOING, TO THE FULLEST SENSE OF THE WORD.
2.2. UNDER THE COMPANY'S AIM IS ALSO INCLUDED THE FOUNDING AND ACQUIRE of- THE PARTICIPATING IN THE MET TOGETHER AND USE OF DIRECTORS OF OTHER COMPANIES AND THE (DO) FINANCE EVEN THROUGH THE PROVISION OF GUARANTEES, OTHER BUSINESSES, PARTICULARLY (BUT NOT LIMITED PURPOSE) OF THAT WHICH THE COMPANY IS CONNECTED TO A GROUP.
2.3. WITHIN ITS PURPOSE, THE COMPANY all that PROVIDE WHAT CONNECTION WITH THIS OBJECTIVE TO THE MAXIMUM SENTENCE FOR BOTH THEIR OWN ACCOUNT AS A THIRD PARTY.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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