The_Info_Web/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Union Banking Corporation.md

title	aliases	category	tags	summary	start	end	location	created	updated	relations
Union Banking Corporation	Union Banking Corporation UBC	Private Organization	Organization Banking Nazi WorldWarII TradingWithTheEnemyAct Thyssen 1920s 1940s	New York bank holding company incorporated in 1924 and owned by the Rotterdam bank Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, whose capital stock the Alien Property Custodian vested in 1942 as held for the Thyssen family.	1924-08-04	1942-10-20	New York, New York	2026-10-14	2026-10-26	type with reverse start end role fn owned Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart true 1924-08-04 1942-10-20 sole owner according to the Treasury investigation of 1941 2 type with reverse start role fn owned Office of the Alien Property Custodian true 1942-10-20 capital stock vested under Vesting Order Number 248 1 type with reverse end role fn owned E. Roland Harriman true 1942-10-20 registered holder of 3,991 of 4,000 shares at vesting 1 type with reverse end role fn owned Prescott Bush true 1942-10-20 registered holder of 1 of 4,000 shares at vesting 1 type with reverse end role fn owned Ray Morris true 1942-10-20 registered holder of 1 of 4,000 shares at vesting 1 type with reverse end role fn owned Harold D. Pennington true 1942-10-20 registered holder of 1 of 4,000 shares at vesting 1 type with reverse start end role fn director_of Prescott Bush true 1924-08-04 1942-10-20 one of seven directors according to the incorporation documents as reported by the Guardian; registered holder of one share in Vesting Order Number 248 14 type with reverse start role fn director_of E. Roland Harriman true 1932 director in 1932, according to Sutton (1976), Table 7-1 7 type with reverse start role fn director_of Knight Woolley true 1932 listed among eight directors for 1932 in Sutton's 1983 account; not among the directors in the corporation's report of January 1, 1941 8

The Union Banking Corporation (UBC) was a New York corporation incorporated on August 4, 1924 and wholly owned by the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart of Rotterdam. The Alien Property Custodian vested all of its capital stock under the Trading with the Enemy Act on October 20, 1942, in an order that records the stock as held for the benefit of that bank and describes the bank as owned or controlled by members of the Thyssen family.¹

Treasury Investigation, 1941

A Treasury Department memorandum of August 18, 1941, from Mr. May to Mr. J. W. Pehle under the subject "Union Banking Corporation," reports that the corporation was wholly owned by the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, that the investigation "produced no evidence as to the ownership of this Dutch bank," that its president, Cornelis Lievense, claimed no knowledge of that ownership but believed it possible that Baron Heinrich Thyssen, brother of Fritz Thyssen, might own a substantial interest, and that Heinrich Thyssen was said to have acquired Hungarian citizenship.²

The memorandum records gold purchases of over eight million dollars in 1931 to 1933, of which $3,085,000 was delivered to the Federal Reserve Bank on June 15, 1934. It states that the rumor that Fritz Thyssen had large gold deposits in the United States might have arisen from those purchases, while adding that all purchases were "satisfactorily accounted for" in the books. It states that in the fall of 1938 the corporation held two million dollars in currency in a New York safe deposit box, later deposited in its account with Brown Brothers Harriman.² The memorandum does not name Prescott Bush.² The The Guardian dated the same memorandum August 16, 1941.³

Correspondence with the Superintendent of Banks, 1941

On January 14, 1941, Knight Woolley, a partner of Brown Brothers Harriman, wrote to William R. White, superintendent of banks for the State of New York, about the corporation, which he described as "a state institution under your supervision." The letter names "E. R. Harriman, Ray Morris, Prescott S. Bush and our manager, H. D. Pennington" as the directors, and describes the corporation as "in effect a New York office, or agency, of the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, in Rotterdam." The letter calls the four directors "my partners" and says the corporation was located at 39 Broadway. It states that the bank was the corporation's only depositor, that its activity was "limited to occasional payments and a few purchases and sales of securities," and that its accounts had been frozen under the presidential proclamation of May 10, 1940. Morris or Pennington had to sign checks jointly with the president, Cornelius Lievense, or with an assistant, and a representative of the firm had to be present whenever the safe deposit box at the Chase Bank was opened. The letter says: "Should the United States enter the war, they feel they might be under some embarrassment because of their connection with the bank, even though we have no financial interest in the Union Banking Corporation, nor do we participate in its earnings." Woolley asked White for "a frank expression from you as to the action" the directors should take, and wrote that they acted as directors "merely as a matter of business courtesy."⁴

White replied on May 13, 1941 that the department had not had to give the corporation the unusual attention given other banking organizations affected by the freezing orders "because of the confidence which the department has in the directors of this institution," that it "would not feel free to object" if Harriman, Bush and Pennington resigned, and that "the department would be gratified if these gentlemen could find it possible to remain on the board during this period of uncertainty."⁴ A report of the corporation issued on January 1, 1941 and reprinted in the same source lists the directors as Lievense, E. Roland Harriman, Pennington, Bush, J. Kouwenhoven, Ray Morris and J. G. Groeninger.⁴

Vesting Order Number 248

On October 20, 1942 the Alien Property Custodian, Leo T. Crowley, signed Vesting Order Number 248, published in the Federal Register on November 7, 1942. It vested "all of the capital stock of Union Banking Corporation, a New York corporation," consisting of 4,000 shares of $100 par value common stock, and listed the registered owners and their shares: E. Roland Harriman, 3,991; Cornelius Lievense, 4; Harold D. Pennington, 1; Ray Morris, 1; Prescott S. Bush, 1; H. J. Kouwenhoven, 1; and Johann G. Groeninger, 1. The order states "all of which shares are held for the benefit of Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, N. V., Rotterdam, The Netherlands, which bank is owned or controlled by members of the Thyssen family, nationals of Germany and/or Hungary." A second paragraph vested all claims of that bank and of the August Thyssen-Bank, Berlin, against the corporation for indebtedness.¹

Holders and Directors

Of the seven registered holders in the vesting order, four were connected with Brown Brothers Harriman. E. Roland Harriman became a partner of the Harriman bank on October 30, 1926 and of the merged firm on January 1, 1931. Prescott Bush was a partner of Harriman Brothers & Co. on January 1, 1930 and of the merged firm on January 1, 1931. Ray Morris was a partner from January 1, 1921 to 1956. Harold D. Pennington was a partner of Harriman Brothers during 1930, manager in charge of operations of the merged firm from its start, and a partner from January 1, 1945 to December 31, 1956.⁵ The Yale class history of 1917 states of Edward Roland Noel Harriman, "He is a member of Psi Upsilon and Skull and Bones," and of Prescott Sheldon Bush, "He belongs to the Whiffenpoofs, Psi Upsilon, and Skull and Bones."⁶

Antony C. Sutton described the corporation in 1976 as "a joint Thyssen-Harriman operation," wrote that the Harrimans had a financial interest in it, described the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart as a Thyssen front bank in Holland that controlled it, and named E. Roland Harriman, a vice president of W. A. Harriman & Co., and H. J. Kouwenhoven as directors in a table of its directors in 1932.⁷ In his 1983 book on Skull and Bones he listed eight directors: E. Roland Harriman as a vice president of W. A. Harriman & Co.; Ellery Sedgwick James as a partner of Brown Brothers & Co.; Prescott Sheldon Bush as a partner of Brown Brothers Harriman; Knight Woolley as a director of Guaranty Trust Company and of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; Cornelius Lievense as president; and H. J. Kouwenhoven, Johann G. Groeninger and J. L. Guinter. He wrote that four of the directors were members of the Yale class of 1917 and of the same society, and that Kouwenhoven and Groeninger were directors of the Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart, which he described as the former von Heydt bank.⁸ The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's annual report for 1939 lists Knight Woolley of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. as a member of the bank's foreign exchange committee, representing private banks and investment houses.⁹ The bank's Circular No. 1015 of January 8, 1931 names Clarence M. Woolley of Greenwich, Connecticut, chairman of American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corporation, as a Class C director of the bank for three years from January 1, 1931.¹⁰ The firm's partner table gives November 25, 1932 as the date of James's death.⁵

Holland-American Trading and Seamless Steel Equipment, 1942

Vesting Order Number 259 vested all of the capital stock of the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation, a New York corporation of 500 shares of $100 par value stock, registered in the name of Cornelius Lievense and held for the benefit of Press- und Walzwerk A.G. of Düsseldorf and of Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart. Vesting Order Number 261 vested all of the capital stock of the Holland-American Trading Corporation, also a New York corporation with 500 shares, held by E. Roland Harriman (491 shares), Lievense (4), and Harold D. Pennington, Ray Morris, Knight Woolley, H. J. Kouwenhoven and J. G. Groeninger (1 share each), for the benefit of Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart. Both orders were executed October 28, 1942 and published in the Federal Register on December 19, 1942.¹¹¹² The Guardian described both companies as affiliates against which "further seizures were made" after the seizure of the Union Banking Corporation.¹³

The Guardian Account, 2004

Ben Aris and Duncan Campbell reported in the Guardian in 2004 that the incorporation documents of the corporation "list him as one of seven directors" and show that Prescott Bush owned one share worth $125.¹⁴ They also reported that Homer Jones, chief of the Alien Property Custodian's investigation and research division, sent a memorandum to the custodian's executive committee within weeks of the investigation. Jones named the directors of the bank in that memorandum, including Bush, and wrote that the stock was "held by the above named individuals, however, solely as nominees for the Bank voor Handel, Rotterdam, Holland, which is owned by one or more of the Thyssen family."¹⁵

Footnotes

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1. Office of the Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order Number 248, "All of the Capital Stock of Union Banking Corporation and Certain Indebtedness Owing by It," executed October 20, 1942, signed Leo T. Crowley, F.R. Doc. 42-11568, filed November 6, 1942, 7 Federal Register 9097 (November 7, 1942). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-1942-11-07/pdf/FR-1942-11-07.pdf ↩︎

2. Treasury Department memorandum, Mr. May to Mr. Pehle, August 18, 1941, "Re: Union Banking Corporation," ref. 9-151, with handwritten notation by J. W. Pehle, declassified by NARA (authority NND 960103). ↩︎

3. Aris and Campbell, The Guardian, September 25, 2004, which gives the date of the report as "August 16 1941." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar ↩︎

4. Kris Millegan, Fleshing Out Skull & Bones: Investigations into America's Most Powerful Secret Society (Trine Day, 2003), reprint of the Woolley letter of January 14, 1941, the White reply of May 13, 1941 and the corporation's report of January 1, 1941, pp. 214 to 217, and the chapter's narrative of the directorship, pp. 222 to 223. https://archive.org/details/fleshing_out_skull_and_bones ↩︎

5. John A. Kouwenhoven, Partners in Banking: An Historical Portrait of a Great Private Bank, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., 1818-1968 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1968), partner table pp. 231 to 235 and caption of the Pennington photograph pp. 197 to 198. https://archive.org/details/partnersinbankinganhistoricalportraitofagreatprivateb ↩︎

6. History of the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen, Yale College, vol. 1 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1917), entries for Edward Roland Noel Harriman and Prescott Sheldon Bush (pp. 105 to 106). https://archive.org/details/historyofclassof00murr ↩︎

7. Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler (1976), p. 103 (Table 7-1 and text on the 1932 directors and the joint Thyssen-Harriman operation) and pp. 106 to 107 (E. Roland Harriman). ↩︎

8. Antony C. Sutton, America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones (1983; Trine Day, 2002), section "The Union Banking Connection," with the table of the eight directors in 1932. ↩︎

9. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Twenty-Fifth Annual Report (for the year 1939), pp. 16 to 17 and note 2 on the foreign exchange committee. https://archive.org/details/sim_federal-reserve-bank-of-new-york-annual-report_1939-12-31 ↩︎

10. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Circular No. 1015, "Appointment of Directors," January 8, 1931. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/historical/ny%20circulars/1931_01015.pdf ↩︎

11. Office of the Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order Number 259, "All of the Capital Stock of Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation," executed October 28, 1942, filed December 18, 1942 (F.R. Doc. 42-13530), Federal Register 7 (December 19, 1942), pp. 10626 to 10627. https://archive.org/details/sim_federal-register-find_1942-12-19_7_248 ↩︎

12. Office of the Alien Property Custodian, Vesting Order Number 261, "All of the Capital Stock of Holland-American Trading Corporation," executed October 28, 1942 (F.R. Doc. 42-13532, filed December 18, 1942), Federal Register 7 (December 19, 1942), p. 10627, holder table of 500 shares. https://archive.org/details/sim_federal-register-find_1942-12-19_7_248 ↩︎

13. Ben Aris and Duncan Campbell, "How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power," The Guardian, September 25, 2004: "Having gone through the books of the bank, further seizures were made against two affiliates, the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar ↩︎

14. Aris and Campbell, The Guardian, September 25, 2004: "the incorporation documents, which list him as one of seven directors, show he owned one share in UBC worth $125." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar ↩︎

15. Aris and Campbell, The Guardian, September 25, 2004, quoting the Homer Jones memorandum from National Archives vesting files. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar ↩︎