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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

ZABS TRADING N.V.

Company Name ZABS TRADING N.V.
Date of Registration 23rd January 2006
Company Objective 1. The conduct of business, including retail, wholesale, intermediate, transit, and comrnissie-
agenturenhandel in and bet irnporteren and exporting afford all kinds of fashion, ladies, men, sports, recreation and children's clothing, footwear and furthermore all the articles and rniddelen who traded broadest sense of the word serve to promote and increase the beauty of the lichaarn and commit the rneest in clothing stores and boutiques;
2. Driving trading, the irnporteren and exporting afford all kinds of tourists / souvenier-
artikelen, jewelery, precious stones, jewelry, gold and silver- gilt and silver plated objects, clocks, art, optical goods and instrurnenten, pottery, porcelain , gift items, electrical and electronic devices and items,
snuisterijen and afford all other types of jewelery items, alsrnede manufacturing,
bewerken, repair and maintain all those bovengenoernde items and products that are susceptible therefor;
3. Obtaining, it found, it (do) organization, the (do) operate, the (do) adrninistreren, Renting and leasing of one or rneerdere bovengenoernde stores where items are traded;
4. The deelnernen import, provide support on or is in any way interested in continuing or the administration carry over or representation waarnernen vanandere ondernerningen, partnerships and legal persons, regardless of the object clause;
5. Conducting afford all work and afford all actions, which are related to bet above in the broadest sense, arising therefrom or may be conducive thereto; 6. is understood me Establishing Under bets object of the company and acquire other companies, particularly those with which the company is affiliated in a group; and The (do) financing, including through bet of securities, including bets are jointly and severally responsible for its affiliates and / or other companies with which the company is affiliated in a group.
















Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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