MAHEU DENIES ANTI-ONASSIS CIA CONNECTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81M00980R000600060036-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 18, 2004
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: August 3, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHIN%4oW or Release 20%
Maheu Denies
- Anti-Onassis
CIA Connection
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Onetime
Howard Hughes aide Robert Maheu
says he was hired by a competitor of
Aristotle Onassis to discredit the
Greek millioniare.
But he yesterday denied a report
that he was part of a purported CIA
"dirty tricks" campaign against the
late shipping magnate.
Playboy magazine said Maheu,
then-Vice President Richard Nixon
and now-Chief Justice Warren Bur-
ger all took part in the alleged plot to
ruin Onassis after the shipowner had
received permission to carry Saudi
Ar bian'oil to the United States.
Burger, an assistant attorney
general at the time, denied through a
spokesman that he received intelli.
gence reports on the anti-Onassis
campaign. Nixon could not be
reached for comment and the CIA de-
clined comment.
Maheu, who operated an interna-
tional management consulting and
investigative firm and received a
$500-a-month retainer from the CIA,
said in an interview yesterday that
he had worked for Stavros Niarchos,
a fierce competitor of Onassis.
He said his firm did a study of the
Onassis-Saudi Arabian agreement
and concluded that by 1960 Onassis
could be making a profit of $200 mil-
lion a year on the shipments.
"He would have controlled more
deadweight (tanker) tonnage than
the United States had under its com-
mand," Maheu said. "Here was a
man in so much control, the question
was where he would have gone next
with his profits.
"He could have tied up the world
and our own government hadn't real-
ized the severity of this." r
Approved For Release 2004/06/14: CIA-RDP81 M00980R000600060036-1