Sociedad Industrial Maritima Financiera Ariona Panama S.A.

The Sociedad Industrial Maritima Financiera Ariona Panama S.A. was formed in 1946. It was involved as owner of Onassis companies during the conflict between Onassis and the government of the United States. This conflict concerned the purchase by Onassis (and other Greek shipowners) of American warships from the United States Maritime Commission, tankers in particular, at a time when their purchase by foreigners was forbidden. The purchases were made by shipping companies which appeared to belong to American citizens, but Onassis held all the shares. After the conflict with the United States government – a lengthy and much-discussed dispute, and which ended with a compromise in 1956 –three of Onassis’s American shipping companies were merged into Victory Carriers Inc., to which control of all the ships was transferred. The American company Victory Carriers subsequently took control of 75% of the Liberian Alexander S. Onassis Corporation a company nominally owned by Aristotle Onassis, with 25% owned by Sociedad Industrial Maritima Financiera Ariona Panama SA.

Montevideo, New York, Monte Carlo, Paris, London, Piraeus

Panama S.A.

This is one of the three type-A grandmother companies, through which Onassis owned his assets and conducted all his business activities. All the accounting entries and control of Onassis’s businesses was done through the three grandmother companies, Miraflores, Ariona and Aristotelis.