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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

MARCOMY COMPANY N.V.

Company Name MARCOMY COMPANY N.V.
Date of Registration 5th September 1987
Company Objective 1. obtain, possess, manage, sell, exchange, transfer, dispose of, issue and trading of shares and other securities in respect of, bonds, funds, promissory notes, debentures, notes and other debt securities and other securities, including, but without restriction to the a la short sales of securities, buying on margin securities, pledging securities, engage in arbitrage transactions, entering into, buying and selling options, puts and calls, participate in the issuance of securities that are not traded publicly., trading in securities that are not listed on a stock exchange, "letter stocks", and marketable securities of real estate companies.
2. borrowing selden and bet issuing debentures therefor, as well as lending funds and in any way to provide security for third parties
3 obtain:... after income arising from the transfer or cede the right to use copyrights, patents, designs, secret process or recipes, trademarks and similar matters;
b. royalties. including rent related to movies or in respect of the use of industrial, commercial or scientific equipment, as well as with regard to the operation of a mine or quarry or any natural resource and other immovable property;
c. fees for the provision of technical assistance;
4. Investing directly or indirectly, of its assets in real estate and rights to acquire, own, manage, rent, lease, lease, lease. parcel, drainage, develop, cultivate, alienate, encumber, exploit real property including immovable property for bets agriculture and livestock, and building roads, dikes and similar works in real estate.
5. obtaining, mining, production, preparation, manufacture and trading - including the import and export of raw materials, minerals and metals, semi-finished products of any kind and under whatever name
6.. to represent and defend interests of third parties; e.e.a. insofar as those activities outside Aruba and exclusively for non-residents will be performed.

Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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