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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

COCUS 5

Company Name COCUS 5
Date of Registration 25th April 2005
Company Objective 1. the conduct of business - including the retail, wholesale, intermediate, import, export, transit, agenturen- and commission business - all kinds of women's, men's, children's and baby clothing, lingerie, beach and sporting goods, t-shirts, hats, shoes, ties, belts, bags, suitcases, leather and artificial leather goods, watches, gift and tourist articles, wallet, cosmetics, perfumery, toiletries, delicatessen, sunglasses, gift items, towels, suntan oils , manicures, jewelry, ornaments, fancy articles, jewelery, accessories, gift items and toys, all in the broadest sense.
2. the operation of one or more clothing boutiques, clothing stores and related businesses, focusing on the local and tourist public; conducting agencies for quality apparel companies and trade in 'top of the line "clothing items.
3. setting bail and other guarantees and transferring ownership whether or not in fiduciary or trust or mortgage, pledge or otherwise encumber assets, a thing as security for the payment of the debts of the company and the debts of third parties, whether in return contraprestatie.
4. investing its assets in securities such as shares and other securities in respect of, bonds and other interest-bearing debt, by whatever name and in whatever form.
5. directly or indirectly invest its funds in real estate and rights to acquire, possess, rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, reclaiming, developing, improving , editing, cropping, sell or otherwise dispose of, mortgage or otherwise encumber real estate and the construction of infrastructure projects such as roads, pipelines and similar works on immovable property.
6. the benefit of management, staff, employees and / or former employees of the company or of its affiliated companies and / or closing their survivors of standing right, annuity contracts and agreements of pension insurance with an insurer who is in possession of a authorization referred to in Article 5, first paragraph, of the National Ordinance supervision insurance.
7. acting as finance and mediating in the realization of financing of all types of transactions.
8. Company activities mentioned sub 8 can only carry out in such a way that they do not as a credit institution as defined in Article 1 paragraph 1 of the State Ordinance supervised credit system can be considered. it is also expressly prohibited without exemption, to perform the operations mention in Article 48 of the Land Ordinance supervised credit system.
9.het participate in, may support or interest on any way with, or carry it on board or representation observing other companies, partnerships and legal persons, regardless of the object clause;
10.het provide aile activity and all acts which are related in the broadest sense of the foregoing, ensuing from or may be conducive thereto.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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