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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

CORREA CHECK OUT STATION

Company Name CORREA CHECK OUT STATION
Date of Registration 20th October 2013
Company Objective 1.      In particular, the continuation of the enterprise carried on as a sole proprietorship under the name "CHECK IN STATION"
2 Exercising for own account of the Catering in the broadest sense, including among others:.. After \. t it (do) build (do) organize, improve, change, possess, maintain, operate and provide services in the operation, lead, and administration of restaurants, snack bars, cafés, buffets and other eateries, cafes, discos, dance halls,
     providing services to and organizing meetings, celebrations and occasions, duly providing the necessary materials, preparing meals and buffets, as well as the care of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and shall include. operation of the attendees with a few things;.
c      buy, import, procurement, (do) manufacture and hire of all the above required machinery, equipment, tools, furniture, upholstery, decoration materials and other merchants' goods;
d      sell all kinds versier-, gift and souvenir items, such as eg, without being limited thereto:. T-shirts, bathing, recreation and sports clothing and related items, in short all those goods and items in souvenir shops to be traded commit; the foregoing to the extent related to the above work;
e.      provide all kinds of services, in any way related to the foregoing, the recreation in general and / or focused on the promotion of the tourists visiting Aruba.
3.     The invest its assets in securities such as stocks and other securities in respect of bonds and other interest-bearing receivables, under any name and in any form.
4. Acquire     The, possess, alienate, management and development of movable and immovable property as well as the acquisition, possession, transfer and management of rights and interests relating to movable and immovable property.
5.     The rent, lease , sublet, mortgage granting or otherwise of security rights in movable and immovable property or related rights and interests.
6.      posing 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 of the debts of third parties, whether in return contraprestatie.
7.     The full or partial building retirement provisions for employees or former employees of the company and / or their survivors.
8.      The performance of all work and all actions which relate to the above in the broadest sense, or may be conducive thereto.
9.      Participating check, may support buying an interest in any particular way, or the board carry over or perceive the representation of other companies with similar or related objects.
10. The above will be needed as much in compliance with the relevant laws.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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