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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

CURIMAN CORPORATION

Company Name CURIMAN CORPORATION
Date of Registration 22nd January 1982
Company Objective A. ACQUIRING, POSSESSING, SELLING, EXCHANGING, TRANSFERRING, TRADING IN AND ALIENATING OF SHARES, DEBENTURES, SECURITIES, DOCUMENTS TO ORDER, CERTIFICATES OF INDEBTEDNESS AND OTHER STOCKS AND BONDS;
B. THE LOANING OUT OF FUNDS AND THE BORROWING OF FUNDS WHILE ISSUING CERTIFICATES OF INDEBTEDNESS FOR THESE;
C. ACQUIRING PROCEEDS EMANATING FROM THE ALIENATION OR THE RELINQUISHMENT OF THE RICHT TO MAKE USE OF COPYRIGHTS, PATENTS, MODELS, SECRET PROCESSES AND RECIPES, TRADE MARKS AND THE LIKE;
D. THE ACQUIRING OF ROYALTIES, INCLUDED AMONG THESE RENTALS WITH RELEVANCE TO FILMS, OR BY REASON OF THE USE OF INDUSTRIAL, COMMERCIAL OR SCIENTIFIC INSTALLATIONS;
E. THE EXPLORATION FOR AND THE OPERATION OF ANY AND ALL SOIL RICHES, INCLUDEN AMONGS THESE OIL AND GAS, AS ALSO ACQUIRING, POSSESSING, SELLING, EXCHANGING, TRANSFERRING, TADING IN AND ALIENATING OF RIGHTS, NO MATTER OF WHAT NATURE AND UNDER WHATEVER NAME IT BE, IN THIS FIELD.
F. CARRYING ON THE RETAIL, WHOLESALE, IMPORT, EXPORT AND TRANSIT TRADE IN GOODS ANS SERVICES, AND EXERCISING AGENCIES IN THE BROADEST SENSE OF THE WORD;
G. ACQUIRING COMPENSATION FOR RENDERING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE;
H. THE DIRECT OR INDIRECT INVESTING OF ITS RESOURCES IN ITEMS OF IMMOVABLE PROPERTY AND RIGHTS, THE ACQUIRING, POSSESSING, RENTING, RENTING OUT, LEASING, LEASING OUT, PARCELLING-UP, RECLAIMING, DEVELOPING, IMPROVING, CULTIVATING, BUILDING-ON, SELLING OR IN ANY OTHER WAY ALIENATING, MORTGAGING, OR IN ANY OTHER WAY ENCUMBERING OF ITEMS OF REAL ESTATE AND THE BUILDING OF INFRASTRUCTURAL WORKS SUCH AS ROADS, CONDUCTORS AND SIMILAR WORKS ON ITEMS OF IMMOVABLE PROPERTY;
I. ANY AND EVERYTHING THAT IS IN THE BROADEST SENSE OF THE WORD RELATED TO THE FOREGOING, OR AS THE CASE MAY BE CAN BE USEFUL OR NECESSARY TO THAT END, INCLUSIVE OF THE PARTICIPATION IN ANY OTHER ENTERPRISE OR COMPANY.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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