Liberian Ship Registry
After World War Two the ship registering program was protected from Liberian mainstream corruption by being headquartered on Park Avenue, New York City, and spreading to Reston, Virginia. The maritime program, which was conceived for Liberia by an American government, generates enough money - roughly $24 million a year - to make it worthwhile to be president of Liberia even if there were no other economic activities in the country.
Liberia began the ship registry program 1948 under President William V.S. Tubman, with the help of former Secretary of State Edward Stettinius. The group established the Registered Agent Office in New York City to register ships and corporations under the Liberian flag. On 11 March 1949, the first commercial vessel, the WORLD PEACE, owned by interests controlled by Mr. Stavros Niarchos, and under charter to Getty Oil Co., was registered under the Liberian Registry. After the death of Mr. Stettinius in 1950, the ownership of Liberian Services and its affiliates passed to the International Bank of Washington, DC. This company, known as IB, developed through the efforts of General George Olmsted, and the registry was contracted out to the American firm International Trust Company. Over the following four decades, the easy registration system made Liberia the number one registry in the world. The Liberian Registry, coupled with a bank in Monrovia, Liberia, operated by The International Trust Company of Liberia, grew to approximately 75 million gross tons in the mid 1970s. Liberia's government was the earliest to contract out its administration of a shipping registry to a private company.
During the war, Liberia depended heavily on the maritime funds, accounting for some 70% of government revenue. Due to the war in Liberia in the 1990s, Liberia fell to second place -- after Panama -- after Panama and Honduras began "open registry" programs.After the the civil war of 1990, International Registries, Inc., (as Liberian Services had become) entered into an agreement with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, to develop a new maritime and corporate program. International Registries, Inc. (IRI) was formed in 1990 as the parent corporation for its affiliates, and in 1993 IRI became a privately held company owned and operated by its senior employees. After he took over the government Charles Taylor signed a new contract for the program with Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR), and the program remained one of the few legal sources of income for the regime.
