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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

X-CYCLES

Company Name X-CYCLES
Date of Registration 10th April 2011
Company Objective 1.     the for its own account and on behalf of third parties, manufacturing and trading, including the purchase, sale, rent, lease, maintain, import and export - as well as the transit, wholesale, retail, and agenturen- commission business in all relevant tangible and intangible assets, in particular but not limited to:
    a. sporting goods including associated clothing and the hire and rental of sports equipment for this purpose so far in qualifying and sporting goods and documents; .
    b     nieuwe and used bicycles, motorcycles, ATVs, cars and other vehicles, as well as engines, components and accessories therefor;
    c. auto parts and auto accessories, oil and paint, bicycles and car and bicycle tires, repair and maintenance supplies;
    D     bleekmiddelen and other detergents, cleaning agents, cleaning, polishing, scouring and abrasive preparations, insecticides, soaps, perfumery, essential oils, cosmetics, hair lotions, dentifrices.;
    o     niet-, weak and strong spirits, wines and champagne, chocolate, cheese, food and food products, meat and meat products, fish and fish products, vegetables and fruit.;
    f manufacture, processing     the, processing and packaging of products listed under e.;
    g     the under e and f set will require much done in accordance with the conditions contained in the Regulation and the Ordinance on distilleries.;
    h     lingerie, clothing, hats, bags, gloves, bags, belts, leather goods, footwear, shoe polishes, travel accessories, textiles and textile articles falling.;
         borstelwerk, linen goods, embroidered products, hosiery, carpets, rugs and -be-coverings, wallpaper and fabrics.;
    j     toiletbenodigdheden, tobacco and smokers items, sewing kits, kitchen utensils, cookware, tableware, playing cards, stationery, bird food, batteries.;
    k     juwelen, jewelry, jewelery, spectacles, souvenirs, gift items, clocks and watches, glassware, toys.;
    l     kantoor- and shopping needs, books, magazines, daily, weekly and monthly magazines, school accessories and supplies.;
    m. Home substantive wares, electrical and electronic equipment, also including radio, television, phonograph sets, tape recorders, records, cassettes, vacuum cleaners, dryers, calculators and typewriters, video and air cooling appliances, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers , gas cookers, clocks, shearing machines, computers;
    n     planten, flowers, earth, garden tools and all kinds of items used in and for the garden.;
    o     gloeilampen, lighting and neon items, lampshades, all kinds of lighting for both indoor and outdoor lighting.;
    p     papier- and plastic goods, cardboard and paperboard.;
    q     camera, photo products and equipment, chemicals and materials for developing photographs.;
    r home and office furniture, office equipment, lamps, lights, ceiling and wall decorations, carvings and other decor items.;
    s     roestvrij steel, cutlery, kitchen utensils and other products for restaurants, hotels and other catering establishments.;
    .     bouwmaterialen and tools, paint products, hardware, wood, tiles and various items normally sold in a hardware store.
2.     The setting bail and other guarantees and ownership transfer or without fiduciary or trust or mortgage, pledge or otherwise encumber assets, all this as security for the payment of the debts of the company and the debts of third parties, whether in return contraprestatie.
3.     The invest its assets in securities such as stocks and other securities in respect of bonds and other interest-bearing debts, under any name and in any form.
4.     The invest directly or indirectly, of its assets in property and rights to acquire, possess, rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, drainage, develop, enhance, edit, cultivating, selling or otherwise disposing of, mortgaging or otherwise encumber property and the construction of infrastructure projects such as roads, pipelines and similar works in real estate.
5     The behalf of management, staff, employees and / or former employees of the company or of its affiliates and / or closing their survivors to:. Standing right, annuity contracts and agreements of pension insurance with an insurer in holds a license as referred to in Article 5, first paragraph, of the State Ordinance supervision insurance. .
6     The building and securing pension benefit of - as well as making payments to directors-shareholders of the company or of its affiliates, and their survivors
7     The act as finance and mediate.. the realization of financing of all types of transactions.
8.     The company may only carry out the paragraph 7 above activities in such a way that they do not credit system can be considered as a credit institution as defined in Article 1 paragraph 1 of the Ordinance Supervision. It is also expressly prohibited without exemption, to perform the acts specified in Article 48 of the Ordinance Supervision Credit System.
9.     The participate imports, may support buying an interest in any particular way, or the board carry over or perceive the representation of other companies, partnerships and legal persons, regardless of the target definition.
10.     The conduct of all activities and all actions, which are related in the broadest sense of the foregoing, ensuing from or may be conducive thereto.
11.     The above will as necessary be effected in accordance with the provisions of the relevant legislation
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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