Koch Rep. Refutes 'False and Horrific Charge' That Father of Koch Brothers Colluded With the Nazis

Author Jane Mayer’s new book about billionaire family dynasties linked to the libertarian and conservative movements has been a highly anticipated new read. The book, “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,” is set to publish Jan. 19.

Mayer, a staff writer for the New Yorker, predominantly focuses on the Koch brothers, weaving a narrative that, rather unfavorably, traces their rise to political influence and activism. One of the most striking allegations Mayer makes in “Dark Money” is against Koch family patriarch, Fred C. Koch, who Mayer claims played a significant role in constructing a major oil refinery for the Nazis.

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It’s no surprise that the Koch family did not react positively to the narrative Mayer presents as history. On Tuesday, just a week before the scheduled release of “Dark Money,” Dave Robertson, President and COO at Koch Industries, sent out a formal rebuttal of Mayer’s assertions to all Koch employees.

“Recent media reports have highlighted a series of false and inaccurate claims about Koch made by Jane Mayer in a book that will be released later this month,” the letter begins. “As we have told the media, we declined to participate in her book and have not read it.”

Robertson said that if the book’s content is anything like Mayer’s previous reporting on the Koch family and its various political and business ventures, then the family expects to have “deep disagreements and strong objections with her interpretation of the facts and their sourcing.”

He called the allegations regarding Fred Koch’s connections to the Nazis “reprehensible” and said that Mayer’s narrative “represents the lowest form of journalism.”

Robertson then revealed that in light of the accusation Koch Industries conducted an “extensive archival search” to rebut any sensational claims made by Mayer: “Winkler-Koch’s contract with Foreign Oil was signed on September 8, 1933, and the refinery became operational March 23, 1935,” he wrote. “That signing was nearly six years before Germany invaded Poland.”

He went on to mention that during that same time period many U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola, General Motors, Ford and IBM were doing business in Germany. Robertson said that while the partnership with Foreign Oil was Winkler-Koch’s only project in Germany, some of those other companies continued to do business in Germany throughout World War II.

“To state that Fred Koch was ‘hired to build the third-largest refinery in the Third Reich, a critical industrial cog in Hitler’s war machine’ is an outrageous assertion,” Robertson wrote. “To cherry-pick one project among hundreds during this time frame and then use it out of context in order to further an agenda-driven storyline is grossly inaccurate.”

Robertson called it “a sad commentary on today’s political and media environment” that the Koch family would have to refute such a “false and horrific charge.”

“Suffice it to say, Fred Koch opposed all forms of tyranny,” Robertson concluded. “He was a great man who built a great company. Under the leadership of his son Charles, we are proud to continue his legacy.”