(UNTITLED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600090089-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 17, 1999
• Sequence Number: 89
• Content Type: NSPR

d escri ej imse in a text o e of
a 2000/05/24: CIA-RDP75-00149R000600090089-3
to hint at the complex operations of the
stocky, dapper 48-year-old cosmopolitan
businessman. Onassis operates through
some., 30 corporations. His fleet of 100
ships` includes a complete whaling flotilla
and dry-cargo bottoms as well as
1,080,000 tons ? of tankers. He travels
100,000 miles a year; ,on business. He
speaks English, Spanish, French, Italian,
and Turkish as well as Greek.
His homes range from a four-story
New York town house at 16 Sutton
Square to the columned Chateau de la
Croe, on 25 landscaped acres at the tip
of Cap d'Antibes. From _his Riviera resi-
dence, Onassis commutes by speedboat
to his best-known office-the three-
headquarters of the Olympic Mari-
story
time : in the newly air-conditioned
building of the old Winter Sporting Club
at Monte Carlo..
Rags to inches On_asss has made a
number of fortunes-during a spectacular
career that began in the 1920s when he
landed in Buenos Aires-19 years old,
$6fl -his name, and?carrymga Nansen
p it as a stateless person. The family
-Greek tobacco rc living in
Smyrna (now Izmir)- Veen ruined
by the Greek-Tut'kish nassis rap-
F. T
idly went from
acc porting, to
hides d grains, to "phi g. By the
outbk of the sconfl Id war, he
was already in tamers on a successful
but small scale. 'Onassis came out of
the war worth a reputed $30 million.
The secret of his postwar success was
his shrewd analysis of prospects in the
world tanker business. First, he believed
that, contrary to the predjctions of most
experts; 'world petroleum consumption
would increase at a fast'pace. Second,
he knew that the big oil companies, while
expanding their capital facilities, were
chary of overextending the Jves by
building too many tunkers.hird, he
discovered that supeef'ankers could cut
costs considerably beloty reva1ing rates
and still make a p'fffifaiiking on
these three interloekiq'" ors, Onassis
plunged into a large e program of
tanker construction. e found liberal
financing in New York; particularly from
one of the biggest banks and one of the
largest insurance companies.
Lavish Boss: assis prefers to build
most of his ships in West German yards,
man them with. j rgely German crews,
and sail them usually under the flags of
Panama, Hondl,g;as, Costa Rica, or Li-
beria. He thus avoids high construction
costs and wage scales, and union regula-
tions, but he boasts that he pays his sea-
men well above the going rates. The
captain of his newest tanker in regular
service, the 45,000-ton Tinna Onassis, is
said to be the highest paid merchant sea-
man in the world, with the exception
of the commodore of the Cunard Line.
The Onassiis Monte Carlo headquarters
has the unromantic, practical advantage
of the fact thaE fie tiny Principality ' of
Monaco levies no income taxes. Onassis'
acquisition o the Societe des Bains de
Mer et Cercle des Etrangers, which runs
the resort, is a revealing example of his
methods. When the former directors of
the company refused to rent him office
space, he quietly-and un four s.
sumed names-began to by oc
until he had a controlling interest. Now
he plans to follow up his investment by
spending more money to restore Monte
Carlo to popularity with such touches as
smooth concrete paving on the pebbly
beach, air conditioning in the Casino,
and helicopter service from Nice.
Party Giver: Onassis conducts per-
sonal affairs on an equally grand scale.
He regularly breaks in a new tanker with
a series of spectacular parties-on board.
When he first brought the Tinna Onassis
to Britain, he hired a fleet of limousines
to trap pbrf his guests from London to
P pet, halfway to the - mouth of the
Thames. Once he flew a -group of New
York businessmen to Peru, where a heli-
'utipter waited to shuttle them out to his
whaling fleet for two weeks fishing.
In December 1946, Onassis married
Athina Livanos, the pretty dark-haired
daughter of Stavros Livanos, the doyen
of Greek shipping magnates. Educated
at Rosemary Hall in Connecticut and
Miss Hewitt's Classes, Mrs. Onassis, now
24, is a naturalized U.S,citizen. Their
children, Alexander, 7, a,40 5,
Onassis spends much his 303-
fdot yacht Christina, c r from a
Mriadian destroyer escort fit a cost of
$2.5 million. Its appointments include a
lapis lazuli fireplace, and a marble swim-
ming pool with a bottom that rises to
become a dance floor. For sport, he skis,
plays water polo, or water skis behind a
seaplane. His choice of friends often
astounds staid business acquaintances.
For instance, in Hamburg, while he was
having the Al Malik built at the Howaldt
shipyard, his closest crony was a 'Greek
piano player at the night club Die Insel.
Although he is now the owner of
Monte Carlo; .Onassis boasts that he has
never gambled there. In general, his
business risks are carefully considered.
But now Onassis is deep in what many of
his shipping associates consider a spec-
tacular gamble. Of his 1,05,Q,000 tons of
tan,...... a