Ferenc Nagy-William Donovan correspondence regarding Permindex

[Ed Berger]

Two or so years ago, my research partner and I were able to get a number of documents from the Ferenc Nagy papers collection, housed at the Colombia University rare book and manuscript library. A number of these documents concern Permindex, and include outlines for various plans involving exhibitions, world trade centers, and various real estate deals (some of which involve fairly shady actors, like Tibor Rosenbaum). All in all, they're very interesting, and paint a very turbulent picture of Permindex—a company with grandiose plans that descended into infighting and a blizzard of law suits. A similar portrait emerged from the documents found in the Bloomfield archive. 

One of the more eye-popping correspondences was between Permindex's Ferenc Nagy and former OSS chief William Donovan. By the time this exchange took place, the two certainly would have known one another: Nagy was active in some of the programs of the International Rescue Committee, such as the 1952 Iron Curtain Refugee Campaign (one of the directors of this campaign, incidentally, was future CIA director William Casey). Donovan was a fixture on the IRC board throughout this period. 

I've attached pictures of the seemingly brief correspondence, but in case the photos are too low quality to make out, I've typed them out. 

The first, dated 2 January 1957, is from Nagy to Donovan. It reads:

Dear General Donovan, 

I take pleasure in mailing you the enclosed press cuttings, which are the result of our first press conference and also our first appearance before the local public opinion. We have been granted a building license by the Government and thus we can finally go ahead and materialize our  great project. 

As I am well aware of the kind and friendly interests that you have shown for our project in its initial phases, upon my return to the United States I shall be looking forward to an opportunity of informing you personally of the latest developments concerning our project.

I remain, Dear General Donovan, with the kindest regards and seasons greetings, 

Yours sincerely, N.F. [Ferenc Nagy]

Eight  days later, Enrico Mantello—the vice president of Permindex—dispatched a similar letter to Clay Shaw:

Dear Mr. Shaw:

I take pleasure in mailing you the enclosed articles concerning the establishment in Basel of our permanent international exhibition and our international trade center. The Basel Government has fully endorsed our project and has granted us the necessary building licenses, just a few weeks ago. We were finally able to disclose our plans to the public and the enclosed articles are a sample of the warm welcome extended to us by the entire swiss press.
 
We shall begin construction of the exhibition building within a few weeks and we propose to open the exhibition in fall 1958. The construction of the building which is to house our trade center will start at a later stage, this for reasons of technical nature, but will be terminated in the year 1959. 

With reference to our suggestion, regarding the cooperation of our respective organizations I wish to express my full appreciation of your prompt and favorable response. I could not sufficiently emphasize the great possibilities and mutual benefit that such cooperation would offer to our respective organizations. We find your suggestion, concerning the exchange of displays of certain type, most interesting and we shall return to this point at the time of our personal negotiations. 

In order to discuss in full the details of our mutual organizations, we suggest that a delegation of our company should visit you in New Orleans sometime next month. I would be grateful if you would advise wether [sic] this suggestion is agreeable for yourself. 

I shall keep you informed of further developments here and looking forward to the pleasure of meeting you at an early opportunity. I am 

Yours Sincerely, 
Enrico A. Mantello

By spring of 1958, Enrico Mantello and his father, Giorgio Mantello—the main architect of Permindex—traveled to New Orleans, meeting with Shaw. At some point, maybe during this same trip or at another point, William Donovan met with Giorgio Mantello. As evidenced by the following letter from Nagy to Donovan, undated but marked 'confidential', Donovan might have had misgivings about Mantello. Nagy hoped to intercede on behalf of Mantello: 

Dear General Donovan, 

Our last conversation made a very deep impression on me, and I feel that I would not rest content if I did not write this letter to you. Please accept the arguments set forth herein with your well-known good-will and objectivity.

I again verified the financial sources of the Swiss Company. I ascertained that only two financial groups are participating therein: one is the Seligman Banking firm, Basel, and the other the Pension Institute of Swiss Electrical Workers. No one else can invest in the firm under any pretext whatsoever. There is not the slightest possibility or chance that any type of political group could invest in this organization.

I also re-checked the reputation and character of Mr. George Mantello, and his past. I am convinced that he, his family, and relatives are all definitely anti-Communist. He is actively engaged in the fight against communism. He withdrew from the Swiss-Israel Bank, Geneva, which was founded by him, because the Israeli government delegated Left-wing Socialists into the directorate. I verified his business activities also. I ascertained that his present financial status is as follows:

1. He is part owner of the Israeli Factory at Jerusalem, Israel. His partner is the Israeli government. His investment in this firm is $120,000.
2. He is part owner in the construction firm AR-YAV, a prosperous firm operating in Israel. They have created 500 workers' homes for the war-displaced, and 400 modern luxury-type apartments. The George Mantello Financing Co. Ltd. is also part of this firm, which he also owns. He has invested $700,000 in thee two firms.
3. He is part owner of the Construction Financing Co. of Zurich, Switzerland, which is also a prosperous firm.

He has taken part in the organization of other firms as well, but with these he had less luck. Thus in addition to the Swiss-Israeli Bank, which I have mentioned above, and which today is a respected medium-size bank, he also took part in the organizing of the Swiss-American Bank, which went bankrupt, because during Mantello's illness his partners withdrew money they had paid in, and he could not, while ill, take part in directing the business. He did not have luck with a South African construction firm, either. But in his unsuccessful undertakings it was hi money alone which was lost, I never heard of any case where someone suffered any losses through his fault.

His activities from 1942-1944 in aiding persecuted Jews is described in literary works. As the First Secretary of the El Salvador government at the Geneva Consulate, he helped thousands of Jews to escape from Germany and German-occupied territory. These facts are written about in the "Black Book, Fate of the Jews in Europe" by Eugene Levay, and in the book by the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg who was dragged away by the Russians, as well as in the "Black-White-Gray Book" published in Budapest. Further mentions may be found in the London issue of the "Jewish Observer", December 1955 issue, as well as in the Swiss Press during the war.

I feel that I had to write down these facts, because during the nine years which I have spent in America, I have learned that this country is the home of the fair trial, and where someone is guilty only if his sins are proven. It would be very painful to me if some shadow of doubt would be left on a  man whom I consider to be honest and honorable. But I had to write this letter, because it was I who took Mr. Mantello to participate in your hospitality, and it would grieve me forever if you thought that he was unworthy of this privilege.

In closing, I would like to say a few words about the political and economic risks connected with the firm. The firm is not asking from money either from America or any other country, but will be built up by Swiss capital. It wants to show is appreciation and respect toward America when it asks primarily that America should participate in the Exposition, and in the permanent commercial activities of the firm. It goes even one step further: they are seeking an outstanding American specialist who could direct the commercial activities of Permindex all over the world. This would mean that America would have a prominent role through Permindex, following the political cold war, in world commercial activities through the first world-wide commercial organization to be built. No matter how I analyze the firm, its finances and its component personalities, I can see no risk in it from the standpoint of America. However, after all this, I asked Mr. Trenbath to ask for direct information from Switzerland through the Schroeder Banking Co. and to have it sent directly to you, General Donovan.

Please permit me, General Donovan, to respectfully ask that in view of all this, you again renew your good will toward the firm and its members, and aid us in the realization of its noble and great purposes - of which mankind stands in such great need.

Again accept my expressions of deepest respect.

[James DiEugenio]

That is fairly interesting stuff.

Man, these guys were in communications with the likes of the Rothschilds, Rockefeller and Donovan?

I wonder what bugs Donovan about Mantello?

And why do you say G. Mantello is the main architect of Permindex?

[Ed Berger]

Well with G. Mantello—I'll have to dig it back out, but there's something in the papers referring to him as the organizer of Permindex (I had hoped to have the papers sorted/organized by this point, cuz they're an absolute mess, but life has been busy and I'm just now getting back into these materials). Of course it could have easily been more the group around Mantello, or Mantello doing it for somebody. This concrete origins remain elusive!

I've been wondering this too about Mantello. Given that Nagy brings up Swiss-Israel Bank and their supposed leftist ties, I wonder if that is it? But even this linkage is interesting, and somewhat unclear. Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler write that "Gideon Persky, Shimon Peres' brother... found[ed] Swiss-Israel Bank, whose commissions were earmarked for the Defence Ministry's clandestine operations in Europe" (The Global Political Economy of Israel, p. 116). And then we have Michele Metta's revelation that Peres' brother was affiliated with CMC, albeit after 1967. So maybe it's that Donovan had security concerns, or maybe it was something else entirely. 

It kind of reminds me of the problems that seem to have arose between Louis Bloomfield and Enrico Mantello, that Maurice Philips wrote about:

...Bloomfield vehemently reproached Enrico not to keep him up to date. “I asked you, on several occasions, to cable me the results of your discussions in Milan. (…) You did not bother to keep me posted and I want you to know that I resent this cavalier attitude on your part (…) I would never have undertaken this job if I had not been assured of your cooperation. The result of putting my faith in you is that I have to get my own information through secondary sources.”

One part of this letter, really suggest that, far from being the supreme head of Permindex, Montreal lawyer Bloomfield has been the object of the Mantellos’ lack of personal respect.

The other thing that interests me about these letters between Nagy and Donovan is that they seem to suggest an earlier interaction between the two concerning Permindex, and some sort of work Donovan did in helping them in their earliest stages: "I am well aware of the kind and friendly interests that you have shown for our project in its initial phases". Then Nagy keep Donovan informed about financial aspects—and why did Mantello seemingly require Donovan's approval? Even if Mantello & friends were the originators of Permindex—and now I'm rethinking my phrasing before—this seems to suggest that something else is going on. I have some speculative ideas about what this might be, but I'd need to flesh it out more. 

[Benjamin Cole]

Fascinating letters, and also ideas regarding the postwar world. 

On one level, Permindex was conceived in part to help battle authoritarian communism. Founded, in part, by people who battled National Socialists. Hats off. 

But Permindex can also be seen as an organization devoted to the welfare of globalist multi-nationals. 

Shaw and Donovan involved. 

Globalist trade organizations, like global media are, excellent roosts and cover for CIA assets. 

Some people, like Max Holland when writing for the Council on Foreign Relations, think it justified that Shaw lied about his long service on the CIA payroll, during the Garrison trial.  Take that as a cue for what else might be "justifiably" kept from the public. 

[Ed Berger]

Benjamin, I think you hit on something important and very big picture—the welfare of global multinational entities. I think we can go further, about how intelligence work and and these sorts of corporate forms have a structural unity. 

The relationship between Dulles and Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the great representatives of the great corporation, is often talked about, but Donovan himself is almost even more illuminating. In the Coolridge administration, he ran the Department of Justice's antitrust division. This was in the heyday of the debates over the rise of trusts, or the combination of multiple economic actors into large, singular combines that could control markets and prices. For the proponents of the trust, this was an astounding innovation, a rationalizing force that eliminated the supposed 'irrationalities' and excesses of competition between many small firms. The trusts fixed prices at a given level, could raise the money necessary for mass production, and access larger and larger markets (first the domestic American market, then the world market). 

Antitrust was of course wary of this sort of absolute centralization of economic power, and hoped to restore some sort of competitive check to their growth and consolidation. But Donovan had a reputation in the DoJ and beyond as something who played soft-ball with the trusts: he refrained from cracking down on them, and tried to craft legal frameworks for them to operate within. He believed in restraint when it came to the law, and that large industrial-finance combines could operate through principles of self-regulation. The law mattered when the managers of these economic entities failed to 'self-regulate'. 

Donovan expected that Herbert Hoover would make him attorney general, but when this did not materialize, he set out into corporate law. He was especially known for his work in mergers and acquisitions, helping to accelerate this tendency towards economic centralization. He also began to do what was effectively intelligence work for these firms—traveling on behalf of the Morgans, for example, and collecting information on political developments that such large firms would need for their long-term planning. It's only a few steps to the OSS from there. 

Permindex itself is interesting from this point of view. It was, in its own language, intended to be a world trade center (the correspondence between Bloomfield and David Rockefeller concerning world trade centers is unsurprising!). It was also supposed to embody the spirit of the World's Fair—the permanent industrial exhibition. The World's Fair was always been so important for the leading sectors of economic life, places to show the future that their innovations were building. The transformation of the World's Fair into a tool of Cold War propaganda was a natural extension of this groundwork. 

Or the International Trade Mart in New Orleans. It was launched as a sister organization to International House. International House was a membership club for American and foreign businessmen; it carried out foreign missions, provided language courses and exchange programs, and fostered a social space for business between prominent people to carry out their work. The International Trade Mart, as the complementary unit, was modeled—like it's eventual partner, Permindex—on the form or the world's fair or mass exhibition (originally it was schemed as the "Pan-American Fiesta"). Incidentally, Nelson Rockefeller helped inaugurate the International House, and I've come across some old papers that mention the International House/International Trade Mart duo as the ultimate inspiration for what he and David Rockefeller would do in constructing New York City's World Trade Center. And it all comes full circle..  

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, Ed Berger said:

Benjamin, I think you hit on something important and very big picture—the welfare of global multinational entities. I think we can go further, about how intelligence work and and these sorts of corporate forms have a structural unity. 

The relationship between Dulles and Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the great representatives of the great corporation, is often talked about, but Donovan himself is almost even more illuminating. In the Coolridge administration, he ran the Department of Justice's antitrust division. This was in the heyday of the debates over the rise of trusts, or the combination of multiple economic actors into large, singular combines that could control markets and prices. For the proponents of the trust, this was an astounding innovation, a rationalizing force that eliminated the supposed 'irrationalities' and excesses of competition between many small firms. The trusts fixed prices at a given level, could raise the money necessary for mass production, and access larger and larger markets (first the domestic American market, then the world market). 

Antitrust was of course wary of this sort of absolute centralization of economic power, and hoped to restore some sort of competitive check to their growth and consolidation. But Donovan had a reputation in the DoJ and beyond as something who played soft-ball with the trusts: he refrained from cracking down on them, and tried to craft legal frameworks for them to operate within. He believed in restraint when it came to the law, and that large industrial-finance combines could operate through principles of self-regulation. The law mattered when the managers of these economic entities failed to 'self-regulate'. 

Donovan expected that Herbert Hoover would make him attorney general, but when this did not materialize, he set out into corporate law. He was especially known for his work in mergers and acquisitions, helping to accelerate this tendency towards economic centralization. He also began to do what was effectively intelligence work for these firms—traveling on behalf of the Morgans, for example, and collecting information on political developments that such large firms would need for their long-term planning. It's only a few steps to the OSS from there. 

Permindex itself is interesting from this point of view. It was, in its own language, intended to be a world trade center (the correspondence between Bloomfield and David Rockefeller concerning world trade centers is unsurprising!). It was also supposed to embody the spirit of the World's Fair—the permanent industrial exhibition. The World's Fair was always been so important for the leading sectors of economic life, places to show the future that their innovations were building. The transformation of the World's Fair into a tool of Cold War propaganda was a natural extension of this groundwork. 

Or the International Trade Mart in New Orleans. It was launched as a sister organization to International House. International House was a membership club for American and foreign businessmen; it carried out foreign missions, provided language courses and exchange programs, and fostered a social space for business between prominent people to carry out their work. The International Trade Mart, as the complementary unit, was modeled—like it's eventual partner, Permindex—on the form or the world's fair or mass exhibition (originally it was schemed as the "Pan-American Fiesta"). Incidentally, Nelson Rockefeller helped inaugurate the International House, and I've come across some old papers that mention the International House/International Trade Mart duo as the ultimate inspiration for what he and David Rockefeller would do in constructing New York City's World Trade Center. And it all comes full circle..  

There are plenty who don’t accept Carroll Quigley’s “Tragedy & Hope” or “Anglo American Establishment.” He described a network dedicated to dominating the globe and this network controlling the CFR and Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs. He wasn’t a whistleblower, he wrote about history. The more I learn, the more it looks like he was reporting accurately. 

[James DiEugenio]

Keep it coming Ed.  Looks interesting to me.

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Ed Berger said:

Benjamin, I think you hit on something important and very big picture—the welfare of global multinational entities. I think we can go further, about how intelligence work and and these sorts of corporate forms have a structural unity. 

The relationship between Dulles and Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the great representatives of the great corporation, is often talked about, but Donovan himself is almost even more illuminating. In the Coolridge administration, he ran the Department of Justice's antitrust division. This was in the heyday of the debates over the rise of trusts, or the combination of multiple economic actors into large, singular combines that could control markets and prices. For the proponents of the trust, this was an astounding innovation, a rationalizing force that eliminated the supposed 'irrationalities' and excesses of competition between many small firms. The trusts fixed prices at a given level, could raise the money necessary for mass production, and access larger and larger markets (first the domestic American market, then the world market). 

Antitrust was of course wary of this sort of absolute centralization of economic power, and hoped to restore some sort of competitive check to their growth and consolidation. But Donovan had a reputation in the DoJ and beyond as something who played soft-ball with the trusts: he refrained from cracking down on them, and tried to craft legal frameworks for them to operate within. He believed in restraint when it came to the law, and that large industrial-finance combines could operate through principles of self-regulation. The law mattered when the managers of these economic entities failed to 'self-regulate'. 

Donovan expected that Herbert Hoover would make him attorney general, but when this did not materialize, he set out into corporate law. He was especially known for his work in mergers and acquisitions, helping to accelerate this tendency towards economic centralization. He also began to do what was effectively intelligence work for these firms—traveling on behalf of the Morgans, for example, and collecting information on political developments that such large firms would need for their long-term planning. It's only a few steps to the OSS from there. 

Permindex itself is interesting from this point of view. It was, in its own language, intended to be a world trade center (the correspondence between Bloomfield and David Rockefeller concerning world trade centers is unsurprising!). It was also supposed to embody the spirit of the World's Fair—the permanent industrial exhibition. The World's Fair was always been so important for the leading sectors of economic life, places to show the future that their innovations were building. The transformation of the World's Fair into a tool of Cold War propaganda was a natural extension of this groundwork. 

Or the International Trade Mart in New Orleans. It was launched as a sister organization to International House. International House was a membership club for American and foreign businessmen; it carried out foreign missions, provided language courses and exchange programs, and fostered a social space for business between prominent people to carry out their work. The International Trade Mart, as the complementary unit, was modeled—like it's eventual partner, Permindex—on the form or the world's fair or mass exhibition (originally it was schemed as the "Pan-American Fiesta"). Incidentally, Nelson Rockefeller helped inaugurate the International House, and I've come across some old papers that mention the International House/International Trade Mart duo as the ultimate inspiration for what he and David Rockefeller would do in constructing New York City's World Trade Center. And it all comes full circle..  

Ed-

Going back even further...

Need I mention Smedley Butler? 

You have given us a lot to think about. 

BTW, as powerful as the postwar globalists were, I contend they shrink in comparison to today's globalist domination. 

The old globalists, the Freeport Sulphurs, oil guys, or Dole, were mostly in resource extraction. 

Today we have an Apple, Disney, NBA, NBC-Universal, BlackRock, Tesla, GM, JP Morgan, Citigroup, WalMart et al, all deeply committed to globalism (and working with Beijing's CCP, btw).  Far larger, and for more sophisticated and able to bend media (when they are not media itself) to its will. Some rainbow ads, a little greenwashing....

The 10 most powerful think tanks are all globalist outfits:

1. Brookings Institution
2. The Heritage Foundation
3. Council on Foreign Relations
4. Cato Institute
5. Center for Strategic and International Studies
6. American Enterprise Institute
7. RAND Corporation
8. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
9. Atlantic Council
10. Hoover Institution

Every one of these is "free trade," open borders and globalist. 

But of course, globalism requires a global military and intel ops, and dark ops....

And complete control of US government and media dialogues....

 

 

 

 

[Ed Berger]

A few more interesting items from the Nagy papers...

The first is a correspondence with the Dallas World Affairs Council. I hope to have most of the papers up on archive.org by the end of the week, because the World Affairs Council materials are particularly interesting. All through early 1964 Nagy was reaching out to World Affairs Councils across the US as part of some sort of speaking tour. 

The next is the front page of a fascinating essay by Paul Fabry called Propaganda: The Art and Science of Persuasion. It is about the necessity of propaganda, which is a theme that Nagy also talks about in some of his letters collected in the archive. As the cover page notes, Fabry was a New Orleans resident and the managing director of International House, the counterpart institution to the International Trade Mart. Paul Bleu had this to say about Fabry:

A New Orleans based researcher sent me the following information: “I spoke with Paul Fabry, head of Radio Free Europe and other CIA organizations and later with his secretary, who told me that it was always their understanding that the ITM  was “an agency operation”. The bronze plaque in the lobby of the ITM listed Alton Ochsner, James Coleman and a guy named Wm. Norman (atty and spook).” 

Alonzo Ensenat's 1974 history of the International House and Trade Mart adds this bit to the picture:

...it was contemplated that at the operational level the two [International House and Trade Mart] would work in tandem. There would be interlocking Boards of Directors. Mr. Hecht was Chairman of both Boards. Mr. Brent, the Mart’s President, would be on both the Boards and on the Executive Committee of the House. Close cooperation between the two was expected and planned. This cooperation continued for many years, as for example in 1961 when Mr. Charles Nutter left the Managing Directorship of the House vacant, Mr. Clay Shaw, then Managing Director of the Mart, stepped in and managed both the House and the Mart for over a year until Dr. Paul Fabry came to the House.

The next pic shows that Nagy and Fabry were associates going back into at least the early 1950s. Here Fabry is brokering an introduction between Nagy and Jacob Malik of Lebanon. The CIA's Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are referenced in the letter—and it's written on stationary from the Crusade for Freedom, the CIA's funding cut-out for RFE + VoA. 

The last is a 1957 correspondence between Nagy and Constance Dulles. Constance was the daughter of Foster Rhea Dulles, a prominent journalist and editor who was the cousin of John Foster and Allen Dulles. The letter concerns affairs of the Free Europe Exile Relations, a "division of Free Europe Committee Inc." This organization had previously been known as the National Committee for a Free Europe, a CIA front established by Allen Dulles. 

(Apologies, the Nagy/Constance pic is too big a file size. Hopefully I can post it shortly)

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Ed Berger

[Joe Bauer]

15 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Fascinating letters, and also ideas regarding the postwar world. 

On one level, Permindex was conceived in part to help battle authoritarian communism. Founded, in part, by people who battled National Socialists. Hats off. 

But Permindex can also be seen as an organization devoted to the welfare of globalist multi-nationals. 

Shaw and Donovan involved. 

Globalist trade organizations, like global media are, excellent roosts and cover for CIA assets. 

Some people, like Max Holland when writing for the Council on Foreign Relations, think it justified that Shaw lied about his long service on the CIA payroll, during the Garrison trial.  Take that as a cue for what else might be "justifiably" kept from the public. 

Agreed.

[Joe Bauer]

10 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Ed-

Going back even further...

Need I mention Smedley Butler? 

You have given us a lot to think about. 

BTW, as powerful as the postwar globalists were, I contend they shrink in comparison to today's globalist domination. 

The old globalists, the Freeport Sulphurs, oil guys, or Dole, were mostly in resource extraction. 

Today we have an Apple, Disney, NBA, NBC-Universal, BlackRock, Tesla, GM, JP Morgan, Citigroup, WalMart et al, all deeply committed to globalism (and working with Beijing's CCP, btw).  Far larger, and for more sophisticated and able to bend media (when they are not media itself) to its will. Some rainbow ads, a little greenwashing....

The 10 most powerful think tanks are all globalist outfits:

1. Brookings Institution
2. The Heritage Foundation
3. Council on Foreign Relations
4. Cato Institute
5. Center for Strategic and International Studies
6. American Enterprise Institute
7. RAND Corporation
8. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
9. Atlantic Council
10. Hoover Institution

Every one of these is "free trade," open borders and globalist. 

But of course, globalism requires a global military and intel ops, and dark ops....

And complete control of US government and media dialogues....

 

 

 

 

Scary stuff.

[Simon Andrew]

16 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

Scary stuff.

I like global companies and don’t have a problem with open borders.

I work with people all over the world, no problem. 

 

[Anthony Thorne]

Very interesting stuff Ed, appreciate your hard work here.

[Ed Berger]

Were there ties between Permindex and organized crime? 

Both the Bloomfield papers found by Maurice Philips and the Nagy papers have considerable materials about two real estate ventures that Permindex engaged in, one in Switzerland called Parkhof and another in Italy called Marina Reale. Both of these became subject of considerable controversies; Parkhof looks like it may have absconded with the funds of its investors, resulting in Permindex being labeled "swindlers" by the Swiss press. 

A July 12th, 1961 letter from Louis Bloomfield describes how Permindex had established a syndicate in 1959 to acquire the Marina Reale properties, and then notes that "Nate Dolin of Cleveland acquired an interest [in Marina Reale] from Georges Mantello". At the date of the letter, Dolin held a 7% stake. Several months later, in October 1961, Bloomfield wrote to Dolin, stating "It was nice having you in Montreal. I hope Molly found you in good shape when you got back". The letter was sent to Dolin's offices, at the headquarters of the Cleveland Indians. Dolin was partnered with one Bill Veecks in owing the sports team. 

From Randall Cannon and Michael Gerry in their book Stardust International Raceway: Motorsports Meets in the Mob in Las Vegas, 1965-1971:

Bill Veeck and Nate Dolin... had their own relationship with Moe Dalitz, dating back at least to the 1940s, when "Dalitz, of Detroit and Cleveland, held 61 shares of Indian stock..." Nate Dolin's father, William Dolin, was also a business partner of Edward Kleinman, nephew of Morris Kleinman who, in turn, was Moe Dalitz's longtime partner in the Cleveland syndicate and the Desert Inn and Stardust Hotel-Casino.

There's a FBI file I came across over at the Mary Ferrell Foundation site that describes how Dolin was involved with a company called the Alvin Naiman Corporation. He seems to have purchased it through another company called Janeway, and then resold it. The file also notes that Janeway, and possibly another company where Dolin was partner, Dojay, had taken loans from the Public Bank of Detroit. This bank was one of the banks where the Teamsters Pension Fund held its deposits, and the bank's president, Joseph Verhelle, was a loan consultant for the fund. It appears that Robert Kennedy initiated an investigation of this bank during his probe into Hoffa.

The subject of the FBI file that links Dolin to Janeway/Alvin Naiman was Dominick Bartone, the Cleveland hood, Hoffa associate and arms dealer. There's a confusing story, relayed in the file but summarized with much better clarity in a book by William Patrick Dean, how Bartone and Naiman, with funds from Hoffa/Teamsters, tried to sell aircraft and arms first to Castro, and when that fell apart, to pro-Batista forces. These airplane deals involved another figure named Jack La Rue or Jack Larue. This article claims that this was an alias used by Jack Ruby—does anyone have any insight into this allegation? It's not one that I've encountered before. 

The Nate Dolin/Permindex connection plays second fiddle to a much larger and glaring connection to organized crime networks, which is the role played in its finances by Tibor Rosenabum. But that's a post for another time.. 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Ed Berger

[Anthony Thorne]

Ed, don't forget to pop some of those names into CIA Crest and see what's there. They have lots of useful documents, and it's often surprising what turns up.