Thanks for the insightful comment. I agree my views are somewhat colored by anti-Koch rhetoric. My paradigm was that their father unscrupulously collaborated with the Soviets and Germans just for money, while ignoring the sanctions imposed by the US Government. Most of my info on Koch brothers came from reading the book Dark Money.
I will certainly remedy that deficiency with more research into this. (BTW comments like this is why I love the HN community so much).
That's a fair point -- about Germany. I'm curious whether their father began building refineries there before or after the sanctions?
I never really looked into the geopolitical context around the time of his expansion.
I'm relatively sure he didn't do anything to the extent of what IBM and Bayer did for the Third Reich: my understanding is that their father was mostly just a geek trying to build his refineries and the big U.S. companies at the time weren't playing fair.
Now you've got me even more curious though. Going to dig in more.
EDIT: So it looks like only one refinery was designed and built by Koch for Germany in 1934. This is many years before U.S. involvement. And the closest thing to sanctions I can find is the economic war/blockade the UK and France placed on Germany in 1939. Let me know if you find any other sources of information though.
I will certainly remedy that deficiency with more research into this. (BTW comments like this is why I love the HN community so much).