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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

MELCO A.V.V.

Company Name MELCO A.V.V.
Date of Registration 12th September 1989
Company Objective 1.     The acquire, own, 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 sell without restriction to a bearish securities, pledging securities, engage in arbitrage transactions, entering into, buying and selling options, puts and calls, participate in the issuance of securities not listed on a stock exchange , "letter stocks" and marketable securities of real estate companies, either on own account or on behalf of third parties.

2.     The invest directly or indirectly, of its assets in real estate and rights to acquire, own, manage, , rent, lease, lease, lease, subdivide, drainage, develop, cultivate, alienate, encumber and operation of real estate, including real estate intended for the agricultural and livestock, and building roads, dikes, railroad tracks and similar works on buildings goods, everything outside Aruba

3     The driving international trade outside Aruba and perform and import of goods from and to countries outside Aruba

4     the obtain:....

a.     opbrengsten voortvoloeiende from the sale or surrender of 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 other natural resource and other real affairs;
c     vergoedingen for the provision of technical assistance.;

5. Their     The, mining, production, processing and manufacture of and trading in (including import and export) raw materials, mineral materials, metals, semi-finished and finished products of any kind and under whatever name.

6.     The represent and defend interests of third parties.

7. perform     The as principal, agent, broker, manager, director and / or administrator of all that is the above link or necessary or useful purpose can are.

8.     The company is authorized to anything to achieve her goal can be useful or therewith in the broadest sense of the term, including acting as a holding company and participating in any other company or partnership regardless of its purpose.

    The company is not authorized to participate in the Aruban economic traffic, except for the performance of those acts that are necessary for keeping an office in Aruba.

    Voorts may the company also outside Aruba does not operate as a credit institution or association kredit ,, referred to in the National Ordinance Supervision of Banking and Credit System.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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