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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

MANTBRACA CORPORATION CARIBBEAN

Company Name MANTBRACA CORPORATION CARIBBEAN
Date of Registration 4th April 2012
Company Objective A.     the act as developer and project manager in general, more particularly of projects;
    the designing, specifications, accepting, arranging and carrying out commercial residential utility engineering projects.;
c.     the trade, including the import, export, wholesale and retail sale of cement, sand and gravel in bulk, in bags or in any other container or of severely and related goods and commodities, all in the broadest sense ; .
d     the operate ready-mixed concrete companies and bulk stations for cement, sand, crushed stone and related goods and commodities, all in the broadest sense;
e packing     the and transporting cement, sand, crushed stone and related goods and raw materials in the broadest sense.;
f manufacture     the, trading and construction of cement blocks, decorative blocks, paving slabs, pavers and other cement products.;
g     the trade (alternative) energy equipments including but not limited to solar, water and wind power equipment as well as designing, building or doing construction of solar, water and wind power plants.;
i     the giving advice in the area of ​​(alternative) energy.;
j     the design of operating systems include patented the design and automation of power equipments including but not limited to solar, water and wind power plants.;
k assume     the and executing (maintenance) work in technical fields, in particular mechanical and electrical installations for utility and industry for the production of alternative energies.; . En     the carrying out maintenance and repair work on refineries;
m.     the invest directly or indirectly, of its assets in real estate and rights to acquire, possess, rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, drainage, develop, enhance, edit, cultivate, maintain, sell or otherwise dispose , mortgaging or otherwise encumber real estate and the construction of infrastructure projects such as roads, pipelines and similar works on immovable property;
    the exercise of the brokerage in the broadest sense.;
o     -th trading in building materials and machinery, especially construction materials and machinery required for the development of construction projects and land.;
p     the hire, rent, lease and trade in machinery, heavy and light equipment, vehicles, construction equipment, mills, motors, generators and other heavy and light construction equipment and the repairs it.;
q     the trade in real estate and providing advice in relation to transactions in real estate.;
o     the trade -. Including the retail, wholesale, import, export, transit, agenturen- and commission business - in all types of refrigeration and electrical equipment, including but not limited to air conditioners, refrigerators and freezers, water cooling equipments, restaurant equipment, pneumatic equipment, hoods, mechanic articles and electrical materials, as well as designing, building or doing construction and advising in relation to refrigeration and electrical materials, as well as designing, building or doing construction and advising on to refrigeration and electrical systems; .
s     the act as finance and mediating in the realization of financing of all types of transactions;
t.     the company may in paragraph s. mentioned activities engaged exclusively in the framework of its ordinary activities - other than the largely act as fund-society - and in such a way that they do not credit system can be considered as a credit institution as defined in the Ordinance Supervision. explicitly hair is forbidden to raise funds from the public and / or funds to turn off the public;
ow     the participate in, to take an interest in any other manner or conduct the management of other companies and enterprises with the same or similar purpose or whose purpose may be conducive to that of the company.; Sa.     the provision of bail and other guarantees and transferring ownership whether or not in 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;
w     the perform all work and all acts that are not the above in the broadest related, arise from or be there vane conducive.;
x.     the above will be made to the extent permitted by and subject to the provisions under or pursuant to the relevant legislation.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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