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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

INVERGE

Company Name INVERGE
Date of Registration 19th January 2010
Company Objective 1. THE ACTION AS A HOLDING COMPANY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THAT END: PARTICIPATING IN -, SUPPORT GRANT TO - OR ARE IN ANY WAY INTEREST IN - OR WHETHER THE BOARD CARRY ON OR REPRESENTATION SIGHTING OF OTHER COMPANIES, COMPANIES AND LEGAL PERSONS, REGARDLESS TARGET DEFINITION;
2. BANKING OF ITS CAPITAL SECURITIES AS SHARES AND OTHER SECURITIES OF SECTION ENTITLED T, BONDS AND OTHER INTEREST-BEARING DEBT UNDER ANY NAME AND IN ANY FORM;
3. Acting as a finance and mediating in THE CREATION OF FINANCING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF TRANSACTIONS IN PARTICULAR IN THE GROUP WHICH IS AFFILIATED COMPANY;
4. THE COMPANY IS LISTED IN PARAGRAPH 3 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 EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED EXCEPT FOR EXEMPTION, THE ACTS SET OUT IN ARTICLE 48 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION TO PROVIDE CREDIT BEING;
5. WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT INVESTMENTS OF ITS POWER IN PROPERTY AND RIGHTS, THE ACQUISITION, POSSESSION, rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, DRY LAY, develop, improve, EDIT, cropping, SELL OR OTHERWISE DISPOSE OF, mortgaging OR OTHERWISE REAL COMPLAINTS BUSINESS AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF iNFRASTRUCTURE WORKS AS ROADS, PIPES AND SIMILAR WORK ON REAL ESTATE;
6. THE PROVISION OF GUARANTEE AND OTHER WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ALSO, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IS JOINTLY TRANSFER AND THE TRANSFER TO PROPERTY - WHETHER IN FIDUCIARY PROPERTY OR TRUST - or mortgage, pledge or otherwise encumber ASSET, THE FOREGOING TO SECURITY FOR THE CREDITORS OF THE COMPANY AND PAYMENT OF DEBTS OF THIRD PARTIES, WHETHER OR NOT TO contraprestatie;
7. THE BENEFIT 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 THAT HELD BY A LICENCE REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 5 OF THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION OF INSURANCE;
8. BUILDING AND INSURANCE OF PENSION BENEFIT OF DOING AND BENEFITS TO SHAREHOLDERS Directors THE COMPANY OR BY ITS AFFILIATES, AND / OR THEIR SURVIVORS;
9. PERFORM ALL WORK AND AILE ACTS WHICH THE ABOVE TO THE FULLEST MEANING CONNECTED, ARISING THEREFROM OR MAY HAVE THEM FOSTER.

Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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