Alien Property Custodian - World War II

World War II

On 11 March 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9095 establishing the Office of the Alien Property Custodian as an independent agency under his direct authority. He appointed Leo Crowley, a former banker and chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as APC. During the war the APC amassed a vast portfolio of enemy property including real estate, business enterprises, ships and intellectual property in the form of trademarks, copyrights, patents and pending patent applications. On May 13, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11281 which abolished the office, effective June 30 of that year.

Sec. 6 of the Trading with the Enemy Act, 40 Stat. 415, 50 U.S.C.App., authorizes the President to appoint an official known as the "alien property custodian," who is responsible for "receiv ... hold, administer, and account for" "all money and property in the United States due or belonging to an enemy, or ally of enemy ... ." The Act was originally enacted during World War I "to permit, under careful safeguards and restrictions, certain kinds of business to be carried on" among warring nations, and to "provid for the care and administration of the property and property rights of enemies and their allies in this country pending the war." Marshall v. Marshall, 126 S.Ct. 1735 (2006) (quoting from Markham v. Cabell, 326 U.S. 404, 414, n. 1 (1945) (Burton, J., concurring)), see also S.Rep. No. 113, 65th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 1 (1917).