Anders Jahre

Anders August Jahre (28 May 1891 – 26 February 1982) was a Norwegian shipping magnate. Jahre was educated in law, and worked as a lawyer in Sandefjord from 1916 until 1928. Meanwhile he was also involved in the whaling industry, and he founded the whaling company A/S Kosmos in 1928, operating out of Sandefjord. He also established Jahres Kjemiske Fabrikker, a processor of whale blubber, as well as establishing a passenger ferry line between Oslo and Kiel.

He contributed significantly to the development of the city of Sandefjord. Among other things, he financed the building of the new town hall. He was a major philanthropist, and was honoured with The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in 1950 and 1962, as well as an honorary professorship at the University of Oslo in 1961. After his death, however, there was much controversy surrounding alleged tax fraud and hidden funds in overseas accounts. In 1984, the Norwegian government put forward a tax claim against the Jahre estate. A series of legal proceedings in the 2000s succeeded in returning part of the fortune to Norway from accounts on the Cayman Islands.

In 1939 Pankos Operating Company SA was incorporated as a Panamanian corporation. Throughout his lifetime, Anders Jahre steadfastly maintained that he had no ownership interest in Pankos and other foreign companies. Only after his death was it established that Jahre had controlled these entities from incorporation, and that from the 1950s onward he had been the sole owner.

During the 1950s the Norwegian authorities commenced an investigation of Jahre’s connections to Pankos et al. In response and in order to conceal his ownership interest, Jahre claimed that these companies were owned by Aristotle Onassis. The investigation was put on hold when Jahre suggested that it might be possible for Norwegian companies controlled by Jahre to purchase Pankos et al's floating assets from Onassis at market price. Such ships would in that manner become Norwegian-flagged vessels, a goal that at the time was considered important by the Norwegian authorities. This solution was accepted and as a result large sums were transferred abroad to companies ostensibly owned by Onassis. The net result of the transaction, however, was that the cash generated by the sale of the ships was consolidated with Pankos’s other assets and became a part of the capital of Jahre’s hidden foreign fortune – a fortune that grew substantially in the years thereafter.

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