Interhandel

Interhandel, short for Internationale Industrie & Handelsbeteilungungen, was a Swiss conglomerate, known for its long-running disputes with the U.S. government over German ownership during World War II.

[1] Interhandel was publicly traded in Switzerland from its formation as IG Chemie with a complex structure of ordinary and preference shares, which concentrated voting rights with an array of Swiss investment banks.

Approximately 80% of its capital was tied up in the long-running GAF investment, with the remainder consisting of various small chemical companies, Bank Hoffman of Switzerland, a small bank in Panama and various property investments - most of which had been acquired after the end of World War II, under the control of Managing Director Walter Germann, a relative of M. Greutert, a banker and the I.G Farben representative on the I.G.

Farben U.S. subsidiaries (GAF), a tremendous uplift in the value of the Interhandel shares was realised, allowing UBS to gradually take control and absorb the cash in a 1967 merger.

The company owned a group of financial and industrial businesses in Europe and the United States, including American IG.

[5] As a result of the sale of GAF, at the time of its merger with UBS, Interhandel held substantial amounts of cash.

[6][2] All of IG Chemie's American assets were seized by the United States government under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917.

Because they could not produce the documents as ordered, even though it was accepted that the plaintiff had made good faith efforts to produce the Sturzenegger documents, the plaintiff's suit to recover their seized properties was dismissed with prejudice because they had been unable to meet the compliance standard of the US courts required for legal procedures.