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 Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency.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

LEASE GUARANTY FUND A.V.V.

Company Name LEASE GUARANTY FUND A.V.V.
Date of Registration 11th April 1990
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, 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 which are not listed on a stock exchange, "letter stocks" and marketable securities of real estate companies, either on own account or as intermediary for its own account or on behalf of third parties, and also fulfill the function of guarantee caso quo guarantee fund.

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 operate immovable property, including immovable property for the agriculture and livestock, and building roads, dikes, railroad tracks and similar works on immovable property situated everything outside Aruba.

3.     the driving international trade outside Aruba and execute and importing goods from and to countries outside Aruba

4     the obtain:..
a     opbrengsten arising from the transfer or cede the right to use copyrights, patents,. models, 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 immovable property ;

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, minerals and metals , semi-finished and finished products of any kind and under whatever name.

6.     the represent and defend the interests of third parties.

7. perform     the as principal, agent, broker, manager, director and / or Administrator of anything that is or which might be necessary or helpful to the above link.

8.     the company is entitled to everything that can be useful to achieve its purpose or with it in the broadest sense of the term, including participating in any other business or company regardless of its purpose.
Country
aruba
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 68
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