United States v. Belmont

After Russia's 1918 decree nationalized a corporation's assets, including funds deposited with private banker Belmont (defendant), the Soviet Union later assigned to the United States (plaintiff) all amounts owed to it by American nationals as part of formal U.S. recognition of the Soviet government in 1933; the United States sued Belmont to recover the assigned funds, but the district court held the underlying Russian nationalization was invalid confiscation under New York property law, meaning the subsequent assignment to the United States was also invalid.