Office of Alien Property Custodian

[4][5] President Woodrow Wilson appointed A. Mitchell Palmer, a political ally and former Congressman, Alien Property Custodian in October 1917.

A wartime government official, the Custodian had responsibility for the seizure, administration, and sometimes the sale of enemy property in the United States.

In January 1918, The New York Times wrote that Palmer's organization turned into "the biggest trust institution in the world, a director of vast business enterprises of varied nature, a detective agency, and a court of equity.

[10] Many of the enterprises in question produced materials significant to the war effort, such as medicines, glycerin for explosives, charcoal for gas masks.

For example, he appointed one of his fellow members of the Democratic National Committee to serve as counsel for a textile company and another the vice-president of a shipping line.

[8]: 128–35 In September 1918, Palmer testified at hearings held by the U.S. Senate's Overman Committee that the United States Brewers Association (USBA) and the rest of the overwhelmingly German liquor industry harbored pro-German sentiments.

[16] Later criticism of Palmer's and his successors performance, especially Thomas W. Miller's, focused less on legality of their appointments or the fees earned by political cronies but on sales of enemy assets.

[21][22] In 1947, Assistant Attorney General David L. Bazelon took over as head of the Office of Alien Property,[23][24] as a result of the reorganization in Executive Order 9788.

[25] He remained in this post until he received a recess appointment from President Harry S. Truman on October 21, 1949, to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

[26] Before he was seated on the bench, Harold L. Ickes, a key figure in the Roosevelt administration, indicated that Bazelon's activities as head of the Office of Alien Property warranted a Senate investigation but predicted none would be forthcoming.

"One of the most unfair aspects of a general return of all German and Japanese property is that it would donate huge windfalls to large enemy corporations, industrialists and their agents, many of whom were strong supporters of the militaristic and aggressive policies of the former Governments of Germany and Japan," he told Senators.

[29] Townsend seized $329 million in proceeds of Interhandel, a Swiss holding company, saying that it was a front for the real owner, IG Farben, the German chemical cartel.