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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

SOLSINA

Company Name SOLSINA
Date of Registration 24th May 2005
Company Objective 1. THE MANUFACTURE AND the retail and wholesale IN ICE AND ice bars, CONSUMPITE- AND OTHER ice creams and frozen foods;
2. MANUFACTURING, PACKAGING, BOTTLING AND DRIVING IN retail and wholesale food and beverages, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO FRUIT JUICES, MILK AND OTHER MILK PRODUCTS;
3. HIRING OF COOLERS AND FREEZERS;
4. The retail, AGENTUR WHOLESALE AND TRADE IN FOOD, PLASTIC ARTICLES, PACKING ARTICLES, COOLERS AND FREEZERS, consumption utensils AND (OTHER) ARTICLES AND PRODUCTS RELATED TO FOOD BRANCH;
5. THE PROVISION OF GUARANTEE AND OTHER GUARANTEES AND IN OWNERSHIP OR TRUST or mortgage, pledge or otherwise encumber ASSET, THE FOREGOING AS SECURITY FOR THE PAYMENT OF DEBTS OF THE COMPANY AND THE DEBTS OF THIRD PARTIES, WHETHER OR NOT TO contraprestatie;
6. BANKING OF ITS CAPITAL SECURITIES AS SHARES AND OTHER SECURITIES OF SECTION ENTITLED T, BONDS AND OTHER INTEREST-BEARING RECEIVABLES SCHUL, UNDER WHAT NAME AND IN ANY FORM;
7. WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT INVESTMENTS OF ITS RESOURCES IN REAL ESTATE AND RIGHTS, THE ACQUISITION, POSSESSION, rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, DRY LAY, ONTWIKKELN, IMPROVE, EDIT, cropping, SELL OR OTHERWISE DISPOSE OF, mortgaging OR OTHERWISE REAL COMPLAINTS PRODUCTS AND iNFRASTRUCTURE CONSTRUCTION WORK AS ROADS, PIPES AND SIMILAR WORK ON REAL ESTATE;
8. THE TEN BEOEVE of executive OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES AND / OR FORMER EMPLOYEES OF THE COMPANY OR BY ITS AFFILIATES AND / OR THEIR SURVIVORS TO SHUT DOWN: standing right, ANNUITY CONTRACTS AND PENSION AGREEMENTS WITH AN INSURER IN POSSESSION OF A LICENCE REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 5 OF THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION OF INSURANCE;
9. BUILDING AND INSURANCE OF PENSION BENEFIT OF - AND MAKE BENEFIT OF DIRECTORS SHAREHOLDERS OF THE COMPANY OR BY ITS AFFILIATES AND THEIR SURVIVORS;
10. Acting as a finance and mediating in THE CREATION OF FINANCING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF TRANSACTIONS;
11. THE COMPANY MAY SUB 10 LISTED ACTIVITIES ONLY BE MADE IN SUCH A WAY THAT THEY DO NOT LIKE CREDIT REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 1, PARAGRAPH 1 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE CREDIT CONTROL SUBSTANCE CAN BE CONSIDERED. ALSO HAIR VEROBDEN EXPRESSLY SUBJECT TO EXEMPTION, THE ACTS LISTED IN ARTICLE 48 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION TO PROVIDE CREDIT BEING;
12. PARTICIPATING IN, SUPPORT GRANT ON OR ARE IN ANY WAY FURTHER INTEREST, OR THE DIRECTORS CARRIED OVER OR REPRESENTATION SIGHTING OF OTHER COMPANIES, COMPANIES AND LEGAL PERSONS, REGARDLESS OF THE TARGET DEFINITION;
13. PERFORM ALL WORK AND ALL ACTS, SOFT WITH THE ABOVE IN THE ROOM MEANING CONNECTED, ARISING THEREFROM OR MAY HAVE THEM FOSTER.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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