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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

J.C. RETAIL ARUBA INTERNATIONAL BRANDS

Company Name J.C. RETAIL ARUBA INTERNATIONAL BRANDS
Date of Registration 10th August 2015
Company Objective 1. the purchase and sale, import, export, promotion, make, manufacture, representation, clothing, design and trade in general of all classes of textiles and clothing, ties, shoes, bags, belts, fur in general, accessories, watches, jewelry, perfume and generally items to wear and accessories of whatever material whatsoever, including its components, related accessories and objects and any object or article related to the commercial brands of the company owner or licensee;
2. performing all sorts of legal acts related to the objective set out in paragraph 1;
3. the provision of services including, but not exclusively, in terms of sales, operations, salary processing, supervision, assistance, engineering science, maintenance, consulting, marketing, publicity, promotion, advice, research, administration, finance, accounting and advice in general;
a and other than as regards work legally reserved for chartered accountants (RA), accountants, consultants (AA) or comparable professionals;
4. Representation in Aruba and abroad in the capacity of agent, franchisee, franchisor, broker, agent, legal representative, load taker or mandated to whatever target group, wherever located;
a and another to the extent not inconsistent with the provisions of the Ordinance or under the supervision of trust offices;
5. the acquisition, use, sell, assign, use and register in its own name or in the name of another person and under any title whatsoever of all types of patents, licenses, privileges, inventions, improvements, processes, franchises, brands, commercial names, industrial designs, original names, messages and copyright related to the goal as described in paragraph 1 and the provision or obtaining technical assistance of any kind, and the acquisition and franchise or to intermediaries for the exploitation of the abovementioned patents, licenses, privileges, inventions, invention certificates, improvements, processes, franchises, brands, commercial names, industrial designs, original names and messages;
a and another to the extent permitted by and subject to the provisions under or pursuant to the relevant statutory regulations;
6. the setting of bail and other guarantees, jointly and severally connect and transfer the ownership - 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 debts of third parties, whether in return contraprestatie;
7. 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;
8. directly or indirectly invest its assets in property and rights to acquire, possess, rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, drainage, develop, enhance, edit, cultivate, sell or otherwise dispose of, mortgage or otherwise encumber immovable business and the construction of infrastructure projects such as roads, pipelines and similar works on immovable property;
9. the benefit of management, staff, employees and / or former employees of the company or of its affiliates and / or closing their survivors to:
stamrecht-, annuity contracts and agreements of pension insurance with an insurer who is in possession of authorization referred to in Article 5, first paragraph, of the State Ordinance supervision insurance;
10. building and ensuring pensions for the benefit of, and distributions to shareholders Directors of the Company or its affiliates, and their survivors;
11. acting as finance and mediating in the realization of financing of all types of transactions;
12. the company's activities under paragraph 11 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 Ordinance Supervision Credit System can be considered. It is also expressly prohibited without exemption, to perform Banking transactions referred to in Article 48 of the Ordinance Supervision;
13. to participate in, support for, or an interest in any way with, or carry it on board or perceive the representation of other companies, partnerships and legal persons, regardless of the target definition. The company can only perform these activities in such a way that it can not be regarded as a trust office as referred to in Article 1 of the State Ordinance on the Supervision of Trust Offices;
14. the performance of all work and all actions, which are related to the above in the broadest sense, arising therefrom or may be conducive thereto;
15. the above will be made to the extent permitted by and subject to the provisions under or pursuant to the relevant laws.
16. Within its goal, the company can carry out all what holds for this purpose in the broadest sense, both for its own account and on behalf of third parties.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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