Permindex
Encyclopedia
Permindex was a trade organization created in 1958 by Canadian
lawyer Louis Bloomfield
who became its president and chairman of its board. Its name was a contraction of "Permanent Industrial Expositions".
President Charles de Gaulle
. Guy Banister
, in 1962, dispatched an associate, Maurice Brooks Gatlin - legal counsel of Banister's "Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean", to Paris
to deliver a suitcase containing $200,000 for the OAS. The source of the funds was the Bank Hapoalim owned by the Histadrut
and they were channeled into Banque du Credit Internationale accounts maintained by Permindex. Canadian
Louis Bloomfield
was the head of Permindex, head of FBI Division Five and leading fund raiser for Histadrut
in Canada.
Following this investigation and accusations by the Italian Press that Permindex was a cover for CIA espionage in Italy the Italian
government expelled Permindex in 1962 for subversive activities.
and the Trial of Clay Shaw
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison
was able to connect Permindex to figures he accused of participating in the John F. Kennedy Assassination
. Clay Shaw
head of the New Orleans International Trade Mart
, in the 1962 edition of Who's Who in the South and Southwest, gave biographical information that he was on the board of directors of Permindex
Guy Banister
linked to Permindex through the attempted assassination of de Gaulle had strong links to both pro-Castro and anti-Castro figures in the New Orleans area. He was also accused of being an associate of Clay Shaw.
In New Orleans, Delphine Roberts (Guy Banister's secretary) identified Permindex board member Ferenc Nagy
from his photograph as someone she had seen at Guy Banister's office. Ferenc Nagy
was a long-time asset of CIA Deputy Director of Plans, Frank Wisner
. Nagy's partner in the leadership of PERMINDEX was Giorgio Mantello, aka George Mandel
, aka George Mantello
who during World War II had traded in Jewish refugees, profiting handsomely from their misery from his perch at the consulate of El Salvador in Bern. It was Mandel who had been the official founder of PERMINDEX. CIA kept silent, but the State Department learned that, as 'Georges Mandel,' Mantello had been engaged in the 'wartime Jewish refugee racket' until he was expelled from Switzerland.
In the spring of 1958, Enrico Mantello, the vice president of PERMINDEX and brother of Giorgio, visited New Orleans. Touring the Trade Mart, he invited Clay Shaw to join the board of directors as a means of defusing the criticism of PERMINDEX; its critics by now included the State Department itself. Nagy appeared at the American Embassy in Rome to announce that he intended 'to strengthen US control in PERMINDEX by adding to its Board of Directors a Mr. Shaw, who is in charge of the New Orleans, Louisiana permanent exhibit.'.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
lawyer Louis Bloomfield
Louis Bloomfield
Louis Mortimer Bloomfield was a Canadian lawyer, businessman and soldier.- Early life & Military Career :Louis was born in Montreal to Harry Bloomfield in 1906. He received a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in 1927 and his Master of Laws from the University of Montreal in 1930...
who became its president and chairman of its board. Its name was a contraction of "Permanent Industrial Expositions".
De Gaulle assassination attempt allegations
Permindex was implicated in the financing of the 1962 Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) assassination attempt on FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
President Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
. Guy Banister
Guy Banister
William Guy Banister was a career member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a private investigator. He gained notoriety from the allegations made by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, after Banister's death, that he had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy...
, in 1962, dispatched an associate, Maurice Brooks Gatlin - legal counsel of Banister's "Anti-Communist League of the Caribbean", to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to deliver a suitcase containing $200,000 for the OAS. The source of the funds was the Bank Hapoalim owned by the Histadrut
Histadrut
HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael , known as the Histadrut, is Israel's organization of trade unions. Established in December 1920 during the British Mandate for Palestine, it became one of the most powerful institutions of the State of Israel.-History:The Histadrut was founded in...
and they were channeled into Banque du Credit Internationale accounts maintained by Permindex. Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Louis Bloomfield
Louis Bloomfield
Louis Mortimer Bloomfield was a Canadian lawyer, businessman and soldier.- Early life & Military Career :Louis was born in Montreal to Harry Bloomfield in 1906. He received a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in 1927 and his Master of Laws from the University of Montreal in 1930...
was the head of Permindex, head of FBI Division Five and leading fund raiser for Histadrut
Histadrut
HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael , known as the Histadrut, is Israel's organization of trade unions. Established in December 1920 during the British Mandate for Palestine, it became one of the most powerful institutions of the State of Israel.-History:The Histadrut was founded in...
in Canada.
Following this investigation and accusations by the Italian Press that Permindex was a cover for CIA espionage in Italy the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
government expelled Permindex in 1962 for subversive activities.
JFK assassination allegations
During his investigations of Clay ShawClay Shaw
Clay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...
and the Trial of Clay Shaw
Trial of Clay Shaw
On March 1, 1967, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison arrested and charged New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw with conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy, with the help of Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie, and others. On January 29, 1969, Shaw was brought to trial in Orleans Parish...
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison
Jim Garrison
Earling Carothers "Jim" Garrison — who changed his first name to Jim in the early 1960s — was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 to 1973. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy...
was able to connect Permindex to figures he accused of participating in the John F. Kennedy Assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
. Clay Shaw
Clay Shaw
Clay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...
head of the New Orleans International Trade Mart
International Trade Mart
The International Trade Mart is an organization promoting international trade and the Port of New Orleans.The World Trade Mart was chartered in 1945, first opened its doors in 1948, and in 1985, merged with International House to form the World Trade Center New Orleans, a private, non-profit...
, in the 1962 edition of Who's Who in the South and Southwest, gave biographical information that he was on the board of directors of Permindex
Guy Banister
Guy Banister
William Guy Banister was a career member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a private investigator. He gained notoriety from the allegations made by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, after Banister's death, that he had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy...
linked to Permindex through the attempted assassination of de Gaulle had strong links to both pro-Castro and anti-Castro figures in the New Orleans area. He was also accused of being an associate of Clay Shaw.
In New Orleans, Delphine Roberts (Guy Banister's secretary) identified Permindex board member Ferenc Nagy
Ferenc Nagy
Ferenc Nagy was a Hungarian politician of the Smallholders Party. He was a Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 29 November 1945 to 5 February 1946 and a member of the High National Council from 7 December 1945 to 2 February 1946.Later he served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 4...
from his photograph as someone she had seen at Guy Banister's office. Ferenc Nagy
Ferenc Nagy
Ferenc Nagy was a Hungarian politician of the Smallholders Party. He was a Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 29 November 1945 to 5 February 1946 and a member of the High National Council from 7 December 1945 to 2 February 1946.Later he served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 4...
was a long-time asset of CIA Deputy Director of Plans, Frank Wisner
Frank Wisner
Frank Gardiner Wisner was head of Office of Strategic Services operations in southeastern Europe at the end of World War II, and the head of the Directorate of Plans of the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1950s....
. Nagy's partner in the leadership of PERMINDEX was Giorgio Mantello, aka George Mandel
George Mandel
George Mandel is an American novelist and short story writer.A native of New York City, Mandel was educated at the Pratt Institute, The Art Students League of New York and The New School...
, aka George Mantello
George Mantello
George Mantello, born György Mandl or Mandel was a Jewish diplomat who, while working for the Salvadoran consulate in Geneva, Switzerland, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust by providing fictive Salvadoran citizenship papers and rescued tens of thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands...
who during World War II had traded in Jewish refugees, profiting handsomely from their misery from his perch at the consulate of El Salvador in Bern. It was Mandel who had been the official founder of PERMINDEX. CIA kept silent, but the State Department learned that, as 'Georges Mandel,' Mantello had been engaged in the 'wartime Jewish refugee racket' until he was expelled from Switzerland.
In the spring of 1958, Enrico Mantello, the vice president of PERMINDEX and brother of Giorgio, visited New Orleans. Touring the Trade Mart, he invited Clay Shaw to join the board of directors as a means of defusing the criticism of PERMINDEX; its critics by now included the State Department itself. Nagy appeared at the American Embassy in Rome to announce that he intended 'to strengthen US control in PERMINDEX by adding to its Board of Directors a Mr. Shaw, who is in charge of the New Orleans, Louisiana permanent exhibit.'.
Board
Initial Board Members on the Swiss incorporation papers in 1958:- Louis BloomfieldLouis BloomfieldLouis Mortimer Bloomfield was a Canadian lawyer, businessman and soldier.- Early life & Military Career :Louis was born in Montreal to Harry Bloomfield in 1906. He received a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in 1927 and his Master of Laws from the University of Montreal in 1930...
, Lawyer, President - Ferenc NagyFerenc NagyFerenc Nagy was a Hungarian politician of the Smallholders Party. He was a Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 29 November 1945 to 5 February 1946 and a member of the High National Council from 7 December 1945 to 2 February 1946.Later he served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 4...
, former anti-Communist Prime Minister Hungarian - Georgio Mantello aka George MantelloGeorge MantelloGeorge Mantello, born György Mandl or Mandel was a Jewish diplomat who, while working for the Salvadoran consulate in Geneva, Switzerland, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust by providing fictive Salvadoran citizenship papers and rescued tens of thousands and possibly hundreds of thousands...
aka George Mandel, alleged "rescuer" of Jewish refugees and official founder of PERMINDEX - Roy Marcus Cohn, US lawyer for Senator Joseph McCarthyJoseph McCarthyJoseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
, Lionel Corporation - Joseph BonannoJoseph BonannoJoseph Charles Bonanno, Sr. was a Sicilian-born American mafioso who became the boss of the Bonanno crime family. He was nicknamed "Joe Bananas," a name he despised.-Early life:...
, MafiaMafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
figure, Lionel Corporation - Jean Menu de Ménil, owner of Schlumberger Limited
- Paul Raigorodsky
- Count Guitierez di Spadafora, Undersecretary of Agriculture for Benito MussoliniBenito MussoliniBenito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
- Hans Seligman, BaselBaselBasel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
banker - Carlo d'Amelio, Italian Lawyer, Head Consul for Centro Mondiale Commerciale (CMC)
- Max Hageman, newspaper editor National ZeitungNational ZeitungThe National Zeitung - Deutsche Wochen Zeitung is a weekly newspaper, published by Gerhard Frey, who also founded the far right Deutsche Volksunion in 1971....
MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... - Munir Chourbagi, uncle to King Farouk of EgyptFarouk of EgyptFarouk I of Egypt , was the tenth ruler from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1936....
- Giuseppe Zigotti, Italian Fascist
- Ferenc H. Simonfay, Major-General in Hungary and Nazi collaborator http://www.generals.dk/general/Simonfay/Ferenc/Hungary.html
- Clay ShawClay ShawClay Laverne Shaw was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and was found not guilty.-Biography:...
, New Orleans International Trade MartInternational Trade MartThe International Trade Mart is an organization promoting international trade and the Port of New Orleans.The World Trade Mart was chartered in 1945, first opened its doors in 1948, and in 1985, merged with International House to form the World Trade Center New Orleans, a private, non-profit...