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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

HONEYBLUE SYSTEMS

Company Name HONEYBLUE SYSTEMS
Date of Registration 9th June 2012
Company Objective 1. the retail, wholesale, commission and agency trading in household and electronic items such as computers, computer, board games (video games) and software, peripherals, other computer hardware and computer supplies, computer gerlateerde accessories, parts and tools;
2. hire, rent, lease, provide service, installation, maintenance and repair of the equipment referred to in point 1;
3. designing, developing, manufacturing and assembling of computer programs, computer products and systems;
4. giving and providing advice, education, and training courses in automation processes, software use, data science, computing and engineering of electronics related to computer products and mobile phones;
5. Operating an Internet cafe;
6. recycling and re-inks for printers and copiers cartridges;
7. providing services for making photocopies and printed paper, and with regard to the pressure make printed works available;
8. applying a film producerende-, producing video, photographic and audio graphics operations using self-administered computer-related equipment, or possibly through the intervention of film, video and audio studios;
9. letting the IN sub 8 necessary equipment; -
10. the purchase, sale and rental of video electronic equipment, video tapes and film DVDs and other video accessories;
11. designing, creating, implementing and applying promotional and advertising materials to graphics;
12. the placing on the market and (do) editing, including editing, printing, recording, distributing and selling of letter paper, busi- ness and invitation cards, posters, newspapers, magazines, brochures, books, advertising materials, advertising and other printed materials, logos and other information-carrying articles;
13. it, or carry floating of a computer and printer related laboratory for photography and for that reason, conducting photographic laboratory work;
14. Retail, rental and maintenance of mobile phones and accessories and there benodgde roof racks;
15. offering web hosting and e-commerce products and services.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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