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Overview:

An independent agency within the Department of Justice, FCSC has been settling claims U.S. Nationals have against foreign governments since 1954.

 
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History:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FCSC was established as a result of the Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1954, through which President Eisenhower transferred the functions of the War Claims Commission and International Claims Commission to FCSC. The War Claims Commission had been created as a temporary agency by the War Claims Act of 1948, to settle claims of former U.S. World War II prisoners of war and civilian internees captured, or in hiding to avoid capture, in places like the Philippines, and, in the case of prisoners of war, in Germany and other Axis countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 1949 to April 1, 1954, approximately $134 million was paid to claimants as a result of determinations by the War Claims Commission. The International Claims Commission, established within the Department of the State by the International Claims Settlement Act of 1949, was at first just responsible for adjudicating claims involving the Yugoslav government. But it was authorized to also handle future similar claims between the U.S. and other foreign governments, and from 1950 to April 1, 1954 it settled 531 various claims. In total, the three commissions together have adjudicated more than 660,000 claims, with awards amounting to billions of dollars.

 

more
What it Does:
A quasi-judicial agency, FCSC determines the validity and monetary value of claims by U. S. Nationals for loss or damage of property, or personal injury, in foreign countries. The claims it addresses fall either under specific jurisdiction conferred by Congress, or in accordance with international claims settlement agreements, and the funds for payment come out of congressional appropriations, international claim settlements, or liquidation of foreign assets in the U.S. by the Department of Justice or the Treasury.
 
To date, FCSC and its predecessors have compiled and administered 43 international and war-related claims programs against more than a dozen countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, West Germany, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Panama, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, Vietnam and Yugoslavia. There was also a claims program for some U.S. citizen survivors of the Holocaust, and FCSC is currently engaged in preliminary planning for a possible future program involving claims against Iraq. 
 
From the Website of FCSC
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Comments

Paulette BInder 6 years ago
I want to track down a claim made to the Polish Government for property seized from my great grandfather during the time of WWII. I have some documentation but no proof that the claim ever received any funds. Thank you so much.
Lilia Reyes 8 years ago
May father, the late Benjamin M. Leysa received a claim from the War Claims Commission dated November 19, 1951 informing him of his new claim no. 133411 (formerly claim no. 501311). I would like to know the status of said claim. Would appreciate feedback on the matter. Thanks
almudznie abubakar 12 years ago
sir. we ask you something for about of our late father was received a claim card in 1953 by the us war claim commission in philippines.this award never been claim by the owner.we received an email from your good office last year you said expired in 1955. now can the fcsc granting us to become a us citizen?
Paula Costabile 13 years ago
Foreign Claims Agency Victim of Crime in Mexico concerning Faud I have a detail letter and need to know who to send it too. Have been trying to obtain legal help for six months unsuccessfully. I appreciate if you can help in a direct or indirect manner, time is very important in this issue. Sincerely Paula Costabile
Machele Jones 15 years ago
Looking for a document, US State Department Foreign Claims Division - 1991 stating restitution claims are still outstanding for Irene Schmolka (deceased) - regarding property in former Czechoslovakia. The form (#CZ 4727 J) was in care of Leo Schmolka. How do we obtain a copy of the lost document?

Leave a comment

Founded: 1954
Annual Budget: $1.8 million (2009)
Employees: 9
Official Website: http://www.usdoj.gov/fcsc/
Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC)
Desai, Anuj
Commissioner

Anuj Chang Desai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as commissioner of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission on March 30, 2012. The Commission adjudicates claims of U.S. nationals against foreign governments.

 

Desai earned an A.B. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1987, a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University in 1990, and a J.D. from the school of law at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994, where he served as editor-in-chief of the California Law Review.

 

Desai spent the summers of his school years gaining on-the-job experience. In 1990, he landed work a position as an instructor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Then in 1992, he did some work at the Legal Resources Centre in Grahamstown, South Africa. In the summer of 1993, he took on a job as a law clerk in the Legal Adviser’s Office at the U.S. Department of State, and the following summer was as an associate with the law firm of Hogan and Hartson.

 

Between 1994 and 1996, with his college years now behind him, Desai served as a judicial clerk for Judge David S. Tatel at the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

 

In 1996, Desai was recruited as a legal assistant to the U.S. arbitrators at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands, a job that continued through 1998. Later that year he went on to practice law with the Seattle firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, focusing on litigation pertaining to copyright, trademark, newsgathering and the First Amendment. Then in 2001, he joined the University of Wisconsin Law School faculty as a professor of law. With periodic leaves of absence, he has continued in that job to the present. As a visiting professor, he taught at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China; National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan; and National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

 

In January, 2016, Desai was appointed as a member of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board, which issues final decisions for the Secretary of Labor in cases relating to worker protection laws.

 

Among his many publications and presentations are Wiretapping Before the Wires: The Post Office and the Birth of Communication Privacy, What a History of Tax Withholding Tells Us about the Relationship between Statutes and Constitutional Law and Can the President Read Your Mail?: A Legal Analysis.

-Danny Biederman

 

To Learn More:

Curriculum Vitae

Scholarly Papers by Anuj Desai

Official Biography

more
Feighery, Timothy
Previous Chairman

Fresh off his election victory, President Barack Obama has opted for continuity in the leadership of a little-known independent agency within the Department of Justice that settles claims that Americans have against foreign governments. On November 15, Obama nominated Timothy J. Feighery to continue serving as Chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC), a position he has held since March 21, 2011. Feighery, who succeeded Rafael Martinez, saw his term expire on September 30.

 

Born in 1962 in the Bronx, New York, Feighery earned a B.A. in Philosophy in 1984 and a J.D. in 1987, both from Fordham University. During law school he also worked at a family-owned bar/restaurant in Carmel, N.Y., from 1984 to 1986. After graduating law school and passing the New York bar exam, Feighery practiced law as an associate at Kaye Scholer, LLP in New York, Brussels, Belgium, and Washington, D.C., from May 1986 to December 1995.

 

Feighery left private practice for public service as a team leader at the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, established to address claims arising out of Iraq’s 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. He served as a team leader from February 1996 to July 1998, and later returned to serve as chief of section of the Legal Services Branch from January 2000 to August 2003. In between his two stints in Geneva, Feighery served as a senior attorney in the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission, where he worked from August 1998 to December 1999.

 

Upon his return from Geneva, from August 2003 to July 2004 Feighery was a deputy special master for the Justice Department’s September 11, 2001, Victim Compensation Fund, where he was responsible for assessing claims made by victims of the 9/11 attacks. From July 2004 until his 2011 appointment to the FCSC, Feighery served as an attorney adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department, where he represented U.S. interests in international arbitration and foreign investment disputes.

 

Feighery served as co-vice chair of the American Bar Association Committee on International Courts from 2008 to 2010. He taught International Law and European Union Law as an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law from August 2005 to May 2010, and taught Business Law at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1997.

 

Feighery and his wife Sarah have three children: Finn, Teddy and Anne. He contributed $250 to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

-Matt Bewig

 

Official Biography

more
Bookmark and Share
Overview:

An independent agency within the Department of Justice, FCSC has been settling claims U.S. Nationals have against foreign governments since 1954.

 
more
History:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FCSC was established as a result of the Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1954, through which President Eisenhower transferred the functions of the War Claims Commission and International Claims Commission to FCSC. The War Claims Commission had been created as a temporary agency by the War Claims Act of 1948, to settle claims of former U.S. World War II prisoners of war and civilian internees captured, or in hiding to avoid capture, in places like the Philippines, and, in the case of prisoners of war, in Germany and other Axis countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 1949 to April 1, 1954, approximately $134 million was paid to claimants as a result of determinations by the War Claims Commission. The International Claims Commission, established within the Department of the State by the International Claims Settlement Act of 1949, was at first just responsible for adjudicating claims involving the Yugoslav government. But it was authorized to also handle future similar claims between the U.S. and other foreign governments, and from 1950 to April 1, 1954 it settled 531 various claims. In total, the three commissions together have adjudicated more than 660,000 claims, with awards amounting to billions of dollars.

 

more
What it Does:
A quasi-judicial agency, FCSC determines the validity and monetary value of claims by U. S. Nationals for loss or damage of property, or personal injury, in foreign countries. The claims it addresses fall either under specific jurisdiction conferred by Congress, or in accordance with international claims settlement agreements, and the funds for payment come out of congressional appropriations, international claim settlements, or liquidation of foreign assets in the U.S. by the Department of Justice or the Treasury.
 
To date, FCSC and its predecessors have compiled and administered 43 international and war-related claims programs against more than a dozen countries, including Albania, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, West Germany, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, Iran, Italy, Panama, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union, Vietnam and Yugoslavia. There was also a claims program for some U.S. citizen survivors of the Holocaust, and FCSC is currently engaged in preliminary planning for a possible future program involving claims against Iraq. 
 
From the Website of FCSC
more

Comments

Paulette BInder 6 years ago
I want to track down a claim made to the Polish Government for property seized from my great grandfather during the time of WWII. I have some documentation but no proof that the claim ever received any funds. Thank you so much.
Lilia Reyes 8 years ago
May father, the late Benjamin M. Leysa received a claim from the War Claims Commission dated November 19, 1951 informing him of his new claim no. 133411 (formerly claim no. 501311). I would like to know the status of said claim. Would appreciate feedback on the matter. Thanks
almudznie abubakar 12 years ago
sir. we ask you something for about of our late father was received a claim card in 1953 by the us war claim commission in philippines.this award never been claim by the owner.we received an email from your good office last year you said expired in 1955. now can the fcsc granting us to become a us citizen?
Paula Costabile 13 years ago
Foreign Claims Agency Victim of Crime in Mexico concerning Faud I have a detail letter and need to know who to send it too. Have been trying to obtain legal help for six months unsuccessfully. I appreciate if you can help in a direct or indirect manner, time is very important in this issue. Sincerely Paula Costabile
Machele Jones 15 years ago
Looking for a document, US State Department Foreign Claims Division - 1991 stating restitution claims are still outstanding for Irene Schmolka (deceased) - regarding property in former Czechoslovakia. The form (#CZ 4727 J) was in care of Leo Schmolka. How do we obtain a copy of the lost document?

Leave a comment

Founded: 1954
Annual Budget: $1.8 million (2009)
Employees: 9
Official Website: http://www.usdoj.gov/fcsc/
Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC)
Desai, Anuj
Commissioner

Anuj Chang Desai was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as commissioner of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission on March 30, 2012. The Commission adjudicates claims of U.S. nationals against foreign governments.

 

Desai earned an A.B. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1987, a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University in 1990, and a J.D. from the school of law at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994, where he served as editor-in-chief of the California Law Review.

 

Desai spent the summers of his school years gaining on-the-job experience. In 1990, he landed work a position as an instructor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Then in 1992, he did some work at the Legal Resources Centre in Grahamstown, South Africa. In the summer of 1993, he took on a job as a law clerk in the Legal Adviser’s Office at the U.S. Department of State, and the following summer was as an associate with the law firm of Hogan and Hartson.

 

Between 1994 and 1996, with his college years now behind him, Desai served as a judicial clerk for Judge David S. Tatel at the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

 

In 1996, Desai was recruited as a legal assistant to the U.S. arbitrators at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands, a job that continued through 1998. Later that year he went on to practice law with the Seattle firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, focusing on litigation pertaining to copyright, trademark, newsgathering and the First Amendment. Then in 2001, he joined the University of Wisconsin Law School faculty as a professor of law. With periodic leaves of absence, he has continued in that job to the present. As a visiting professor, he taught at the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China; National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan; and National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

 

In January, 2016, Desai was appointed as a member of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board, which issues final decisions for the Secretary of Labor in cases relating to worker protection laws.

 

Among his many publications and presentations are Wiretapping Before the Wires: The Post Office and the Birth of Communication Privacy, What a History of Tax Withholding Tells Us about the Relationship between Statutes and Constitutional Law and Can the President Read Your Mail?: A Legal Analysis.

-Danny Biederman

 

To Learn More:

Curriculum Vitae

Scholarly Papers by Anuj Desai

Official Biography

more
Feighery, Timothy
Previous Chairman

Fresh off his election victory, President Barack Obama has opted for continuity in the leadership of a little-known independent agency within the Department of Justice that settles claims that Americans have against foreign governments. On November 15, Obama nominated Timothy J. Feighery to continue serving as Chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC), a position he has held since March 21, 2011. Feighery, who succeeded Rafael Martinez, saw his term expire on September 30.

 

Born in 1962 in the Bronx, New York, Feighery earned a B.A. in Philosophy in 1984 and a J.D. in 1987, both from Fordham University. During law school he also worked at a family-owned bar/restaurant in Carmel, N.Y., from 1984 to 1986. After graduating law school and passing the New York bar exam, Feighery practiced law as an associate at Kaye Scholer, LLP in New York, Brussels, Belgium, and Washington, D.C., from May 1986 to December 1995.

 

Feighery left private practice for public service as a team leader at the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, established to address claims arising out of Iraq’s 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. He served as a team leader from February 1996 to July 1998, and later returned to serve as chief of section of the Legal Services Branch from January 2000 to August 2003. In between his two stints in Geneva, Feighery served as a senior attorney in the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission, where he worked from August 1998 to December 1999.

 

Upon his return from Geneva, from August 2003 to July 2004 Feighery was a deputy special master for the Justice Department’s September 11, 2001, Victim Compensation Fund, where he was responsible for assessing claims made by victims of the 9/11 attacks. From July 2004 until his 2011 appointment to the FCSC, Feighery served as an attorney adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department, where he represented U.S. interests in international arbitration and foreign investment disputes.

 

Feighery served as co-vice chair of the American Bar Association Committee on International Courts from 2008 to 2010. He taught International Law and European Union Law as an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law from August 2005 to May 2010, and taught Business Law at Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1997.

 

Feighery and his wife Sarah have three children: Finn, Teddy and Anne. He contributed $250 to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

-Matt Bewig

 

Official Biography

more