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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

STA-NAV CORPORATION

Company Name STA-NAV CORPORATION
Date of Registration 11th May 2015
Company Objective 1. providing the building and construction business, including metal and welding, plumbing, masonry, carpentry and electrical installations;
2. designing, calculating, collecting, executing and carrying out of construction work, renovations and restoration including;
3. providing architectural and engineering related consultancy and supervision on implementation of the aforementioned activities;
4. Trade in building materials for use in their own projects;
5. renting and leasing of heavy equipment machines and tools required in the construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of buildings;
6. the construction and maintenance of electrical and refrigeration systems;
7. Trading materialenn, equipment and related supplies for the POINT 6. above.
8. acquire, possess, alienate, manage and develop allot AND EXPLOIT of immovable property as well as the acquisition, possession, transfer and manage rights and interests in real estate concern, PROVIDED THAT THE INTENDED ACTIVITIES ARE NOT INTENDED TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOTELS AND / CQ CONDOMINIUMS CONVERTING AN EXISTING BUILDING IN THAT PURPOSE.
9. THE DESIGN, CALCULATION, WORKING AND PREPARATION OF PROJECTS FOR COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, civil and architectural AREA AND THE SUPERVISION, COORDINATION MANAGEMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND KEEPING CONTROL OVER THESE PROJECTS, PLANTS AND SIMILAR CASES;
10. PERFORM SERVICING, REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE WORK ON PUMPS, VALVES, COMPRESSORS, TURBINES AND Ignition and CONTROL;
11. THE MANUFACTURE OF MECHANICAL PARTS FOR PUMPS, VALVES, COMPRESSORS, TURBINES AND Ignition and CONTROL, AND SEALS;
12. The retail, WHOLESALE, IMPORT, export, transit, AGENTUREN- AND COMMISSION TRADE IN BOTH WORKED AS RAW METALS, HARDWARE, MATERIALS, TOOLS AND SUPPLIES FOR MAINTAINING AND CONSTRUCTION OF INDUSTRIAL PLANTS;
13. WHETHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT PROVISION OF TECHNICAL AND ENGINEERING SERVICES TO ASSIST oil refineries, chemical and petrochemical PLANTS, WATER PLANTS AND ENERGY generating plants;
14. ORGANIZING AND DO CARE OF EVENTS, SEMINARS, LECTURES, TRAINING, COURSES, CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS WITH CHARACTER EDUCATION ORGANIZATION IN THE FIELDS OF ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRY;
15. the setting of bail and other guarantees and ownership transfer whether 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 third party debt , aldan not against contraprestatie.
16. investing its assets in securities such as shares and other securities in respect of bonds and other interest-bearing debts, under any name or in any form;
17. the benefit of management, staff, employees and / or former employees of the company or of its affiliates and / or closing their survivors to: 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 State Ordinance supervision insurance;
18. building and ensuring pensions for the benefit of, and distributions to shareholders Directors of the Company or its affiliates, and their survivors;
19. acting as finance and mediating in the realization of financing of all types of transactions, ESPECIALLY WITHIN THE GROUP WHICH IS AFFILIATED COMPANY, IN SUCH A WAY THAT THEY DO NOT LIKE CREDIT INSTITUTIONS UNDER THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION OF APPROPRIATIONS BEING CAN BE CLASSIFIED;
20. PARTICIPATING IN, SUPPORT GRANT OR ARE IN ANY WAY TO INTEREST, OR THE DIRECTORS CARRY ON OR REPRESENTATION SIGHTING OF OTHER COMPANIES, COMPANIES AND LEGAL PERSONS, REGARDLESS OF THE PURPOSE DESCRIPTION.
The COMPANY CAN THESE ACTIVITIES ONLY BE MADE IN SUCH A WAY THAT THEY DO NOT LIKE TRUST OFFICE REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 1 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION TRUST SIDES CAN BE REGARDED AND ALTHOUGH THE MANAGEMENT OF DIRECTORS OF OTHER COMPANIES AND / OR COMPANIES FOR EACH CASE INDIVIDUAL LICENCE UNDER THE "SITE REGULATION BUSINESS REQUIRED.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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