Before entry to WWII by the U.S., the owners and leading managers of Giesche's Erben sought, through a "repatriation scheme", to regain legal control of Silesian-American through the leadership of Eduard Schulte, the Giesche’s Erben General Manager, and Jung. In 1941, the Swiss bank LaRoche acted jointly with Schulte to register another company in Switzerland, Internationale Kapitalanlegen Gesellschaft (Ikap). Schulte convinced Harriman and Cornelius Kelley (president of Anaconda Copper) to sell their shares in Silesian Holding Company to Ikap. However, the action could not be completed without coming under the scrutiny of the U.S. government owing to the Presidential freeze order, which was extended to Switzerland on June 14, 1941—the order mandated that transactions which potentially could benefit an enemy be subject to the review and approval of the United States Treasury Department. The first of three applications to transfer stock ownership from U.S. holders to enemy holders was refused by the Treasury Department on July 26, 1941; the other two were in August and December.
