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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

BROWN GOLF & LEISURE N.V.

Company Name BROWN GOLF & LEISURE N.V.
Date of Registration 29th August 1987
Company Objective 1.     the act as project developer.
2. Their     the, possess, manage, cultivate, do cultivate, develop and dispose of real estate and / or any right to or interest in real estate in particular by hotel operation and whether timeshares and renting, leasing, mortgaging or in general, the concerns of property and any right or interest in real property and business.
3.     the land development of a plot of freehold land, large screens and vijtigduizend square meter (57.000.M2) situated Daimari to Aruba, Kadstraal known as Third Division, Section C. number 1, with the contained thereon buildings and coconut plantations, locally known as Plantation Daimari, through the construction of roads and construction of buildings, whether or not comination the construction or the construction of facilities for entertainment and recreation, as well as the operation of the aforesaid goods as an opportunity to stay and a relaxation and other partly aimed at promoting the alienated groups visiting Aruba.
4.     the on the aforementioned property building or the aforementioned property and sell or lease in whole or in installments.
5. decorate     the, manage, operate, improve and maintain the aforementioned property.
6. THE EXPLOIT OF "DRIVING RANGE" FOR GOLFSPORT;.
7 RETAIL IN CLOTHING, FOOTWEAR, GOLF ARTICLES, souvenir and OTHER SMALL GIFTS AND THE RENTAL OF EQUIPMENT FOR THE GOLFSPORT PRACTICE;.
8 THE EXPLOIT A COFFEE HOUSE RESTAURANT;
9 hIRING OF ROOM SPACE FOR FESTIVALS AND MEETINGS, AND THE PROVISION OF SERVICES TO AND ORGANIZING MEETINGS, FESTIVALS AND GELEGENHEDEDEN THE PURPOSE PROVIDE THE NECESSARY MATERIALS, COOKING mEALS AND bUFFETS AND. THE ALCOHOLIC CARE AND NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS components, and OPERATION OF THE aTTENDEES OF THE FOREGOING,
E.EA ON A LEASE LAND LOCATED ON Sasakiweg NORTH OF THE MILL RESORT
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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