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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

BEST WAY INTERNATIONAL

Company Name BEST WAY INTERNATIONAL
Date of Registration 10th January 2011
Company Objective 1A. To render services, as well as to give advice to organizations such as companies, entities, governments, public bodies, private legal entities, partnerships and associations;
B. TO INVEST DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY OF HER CAPITAL IN IMMOVABLE PROPERTIES AND RIGHTS, TO OBTAIN, OWN, RENT, LET, LEASE, LEASE OUT, SUBDIVIDE, (LAND) RECLAIM, DEVELOP, IMPROVE, TREAT, CONSTRUCT, SELL OR OTHERWISE ALIENATE, MORTGAGE OR OTHERWISE ENCUMBER OF IMMOVABLE GOODS AND TO BUILD INFRASTRUCTURAL WORKS SUCH AS ROADS, CABLES AND SIMILAR WORKS ON IMMOVABLE GOODS;
C. TO INVEST HER CAPITAL IN STOCKS, SUCH AS SHARES AND OTHER EVIDENCE OF PARTNERSHIP AND DEBENTURES, AS WELL AS IN OTHER INTEREST-BEARING CLAIMS UNDER WHICHEVER NAME AND IN WHICHEVER FORM;
D. TO OBTAIN:
(I) PROFITS, RESULTING FROM ALIENATION OR RELINQUISHING OF THE RIGHT TO USE COPYRIGHTS, PATENTS, MODELS, SECRET PROCEDURES OR RECIPES, TRADE NAMES AND SIMILAR MATTERS;
(II) ROYALTIES, HEREBY INCLUDING RENTING, RELATED TO FILMS OR WHEN USING TRADE AND INDUSTRY OR SCIENTIFIC INSTALLTIONS, ALSO RELATED TO THE EXPLOITATION OF A MINE OR QUARRY OR ANY OTHER NATURAL RESOURCE AND OTHER IMMOVABLE GOODS;
(III) PAYMENT FOR GRANTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT;
E. TO GRANT SURETYSHIP AND OTHER GUARANTEES AND THE TRANSFER IN PROPERTY WHETHER OR NOT IN FIDUCIARY PROPERTY OR IN TRUST OR MORTGAGING, PLEDGING OR OTHERWISE ENCUMBRANCE OF PARTS OF THE CAPITAL, ALL THIS TO ENSURE PAYMENT OF THE DEBTS OF THE FIRM AND OF THE DEBTS OF THIRD PARTIES, WHETHER OR NOT AS CONSIDERATION IN RETURN OF PAYMENT;
F. THE TRADE IN, WHEREBY IS INCLUDED THE WHOLESALE BUSINESS, THE DISTRIBUTIVE TRADE AND THE FUTURE DEALINGS, INCLUDING THE IMPORT AND EXPORT OF RAW MATERIAL, MINERALS, METALS, ORGANIC MATERIAL, SEMIMANUFACTURED PRODUCTS AND FINAL PRODUCTS OF WHICHEVER NATURE AND UNDER WICHEVER NAME;
G. TO ACT AS A FINANCE COMPANY AND TO MEDIATE AT THE REALIZATION OF FINANCINGS OF ALL SORTS OF TRANSACTIONS;
2. THE FIRM IS NOT ALLOWED TO ACT AS A CREDIT INSTITUTION AS MEANT IN ARTICLE 1 SECTION 1 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE ON THE SUPERVISION OF THE CREDIT SYSTEM.
3. THE FIRM THAT PURSUANT TO ITS ENTERPRISE COMPLIES WITH THE CRITERIA OF CREDIT INSTITUTIONS AS MEANT IN THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE ON SUPERVISION OF THE CREDIT SYSTEM SHALL NOT BE CONSIDERED STILL AS SUCH IN THE CASE THAT THE FIRM;
A. IS A CORPORATE FINANCING COMPANY AS MEANT IN THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE AB 2000 NO. 29 OR OTHERWISE ANY OTHER EXCEPTION LAID DOWN BY NATIONAL DECREE FOR THE EXECUTION OF THE PROVISION PURSUANT TO OR BY VIRTUE OF ARTICLE 1 SECTION 2 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION CREDIT SYSTEM;
B. BY ORDER OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF ARUBA AS MEANT IN ARTICLE 1 SECTION 3 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION CREDIT SYSTEM IS NOT BEING CONSIDERED AS SUCH;
IT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN FOR THE COMPANY TO, EXCEPT BY EXEMPTION OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF ARUBA, TO DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLYADDRESS THE PUBLIC ON THE MATTER OF ACQUIRING FINANCES ON A COMMERCIAL BASES OR ON THE MATTER OF THE GRANTING OF CREDITS, OR TO MEDIATE HEREIN IN ANY OTHER MANNER, ALL THIS CONSIDERING THE PROVISION LAID DOWN IN ARTICLE 48 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION CREDIT SYSTEM.
4. THE FIRM IS AUTHORIZED TO DO EVERYTHING TO REACH ITS GOAL THAT MAY BE DEEMED USEFUL OR ASSOCIATED HEREWITH IN THE BROADEST SENSE OF THE WORD, THUS INCLUDING PARTICIPATION IN ANY OTHER ENTERPRISE OR FIRM, AS WELL AS PERFORMANCE OF ALL OTHER ACTIONS IN THE COMMERCIAL, INDUSTRIAL AND FINANCIAL FIELD.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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