Permindex, also referred to as Permanent Industrial Exposition or Permanent Industrial Expositions, was a
trade organization
A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partic ...
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
have been advanced by advocates of some
John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 spawned numerous conspiracy theories. These theories allege the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, the Italian-American Mafia, Mafia, Vice President of the Uni ...
.
History
Permindex was described as a
holding company
A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...
built with Canadian, Italian, Swiss, and United States
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
. As of 1960, it had 20
stockholders
A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...
. In 1959, former
Prime Minister of Hungary
The prime minister of Hungary ( hu, Magyarország miniszterelnöke) is the head of government of Hungary. The prime minister and the Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Parliament, to their political part ...
Ferenc Nagy
Ferenc Nagy (; 8 October 1903 – 12 June 1979) was a Hungarian politician of the Smallholders Party who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 1946 until his forced resignation in 1947. He was also a Speaker of the National Assembly of Hu ...
, said to be the president of Permindex, outlined the group's plans to build "Europe's first international shopping centre for businessmen" within the previously unfinished
Esposizione Universale Roma
EUR is a residential and business district in Rome, Italy, part of the Municipio IX.
The area was originally chosen in the 1930s as the site for the 1942 World's Fair which Benito Mussolini planned to open to celebrate twenty years of Fascism, ...
. Permindex occupied 400,000 square feet within the four "palaces" under a nine-year
lease
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industr ...
with another nine-year
option
Option or Options may refer to:
Computing
*Option key, a key on Apple computer keyboards
*Option type, a polymorphic data type in programming languages
*Command-line option, an optional parameter to a command
*OPTIONS, an HTTP request method
...
Clay Shaw
Clay LaVergne Shaw (March 17, 1913 – August 15, 1974) was an American businessman and military officer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Shaw is best known for being the only person brought to trial for involvement in the assassination of John F. ...
, head of the International Trade Mart in New Orleans, represented the United States on the board of directors for Permindex. On March 1, 1967, Shaw was arrested and charged with conspiring to assassinate President John F. Kennedy by New Orleans District Attorney
Jim Garrison
James Carothers Garrison (born Earling Carothers Garrison; November 20, 1921 – October 21, 1992) was the District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana
New Orleans ( , ,left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in so ...
newspaper ''Paese Sera'' published a story alleging that Shaw was linked to the CIA through his involvement in the Centro Mondiale Commerciale, a subsidiary of Permindex in which Shaw was also said to be a board member. According to ''Paese Sera'', the CMC had been a front organization developed by the CIA for transferring funds to Italy for "illegal political-espionage activities" and had attempted to deposeFrench President Charles de Gaulle in the early 1960s. On March 6, the newspaper printed other allegations about individuals it said were connected to Permindex, including Louis Bloomfield whom it described as "an American agent who now plays the role of a businessman from Canada (who) established secret ties in Rome with Deputies of the Christian Democrats and neo-Fascist parties." The allegations were retold in various newspapers associated with the
Communist parties
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the Socioeconomics, socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Communist Manifesto, The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' ( ...
in Italy (''
l'Unità
''l'Unità'' (, lit. 'the Unity') was an Italian newspaper, founded as the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of ...
''), France (''
L'Humanité
''L'Humanité'' (; ), is a French daily newspaper. It was previously an organ of the French Communist Party, and maintains links to the party. Its slogan is "In an ideal world, ''L'Humanité'' would not exist."
History and profile
Pre-World Wa ...
''), and the Soviet Union (''
Pravda
''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
''), as well as leftist papers in Canada and Greece, prior to reaching the American press eight weeks later. American journalist
Max Holland
__notoc__
Max Holland (born 1950, Providence, Rhode Island) is an American journalist, author, and the editor of ''Washington Decoded'', an internet newsletter on US history that began publishing March 11, 2007. He is currently a contributing edit ...
stated that ''Paese Seras allegations connecting Shaw to the CIA eventually led to Garrison implicating the CIA in a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy.
After his acquittal, Shaw explained his position with the organization in an interview published in '' Penthouse'': "I didn't mind being on their board, although there was no money involved, but I would have to go to Rome annually for the board meetings and my way would be paid, so why not?" According to Holland, an internal investigation by the CIA's
counterintelligence
Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or o ...
staff found that Clay Shaw had volunteered information to the agency's Domestic Contact Service from 1948 to 1956, but that the substance of the allegations were not true. It concluded that neither Permindex nor Centro Mondiale Commerciale were a front to channel fund to anti-communists, and that the agency had not solicited Shaw to use his relationship with CMC for clandestine purposes.