The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is a U.S. federal law that grants the President broad authority to regulate commerce in response to national emergencies. Under IEEPA, the government can freeze assets, block transactions, restrict financial flows, and impose sanctions on individuals, entities, or countries deemed a threat to national security, foreign policy, or the economy.

IEEPA is the legal foundation behind many U.S. sanctions programs administered by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). When sanctions are implemented under IEEPA, affected businesses may have payments blocked, contracts interrupted, or funds held by financial institutions.

In certain situations, blocked or frozen payments later become eligible for release or refund, typically after sanctions are lifted, licenses are granted, or enforcement decisions change. These potential refunds—often complex, slow-moving, and illiquid—create opportunities for claimholders to monetize their IEEPA-related claims rather than wait for uncertain recovery timelines.

Fulcrum Capital helps claimholders navigate these situations by offering liquidity solutions for IEEPA refund claims, allowing businesses to unlock value from assets otherwise stuck in regulatory limbo.

The Fulcrum Solution
Fulcrum Capital has depth of closing transactions of claims against the US Federal government like this one, including Section 301 tariffs and ACA risk corridor claims.

• Many importers are now choosing to monetize eligible claims ahead of a protracted refund process, if a refund process happens at all.
• Fulcrum will take on the burden of the logistics of this process and pay for all legal expenses.
• Fulcrum Capital has been active in the IEEPA tariff space as we are willing to deal with these risks, including extended duration and further governmental fights on payouts.
• We have generally structured transactions as outright purchases (via participation structures) of these litigation rights based upon the amount of tariff duties paid to date by affected parties.
• We have also structured future payment plans to buy these litigation rights as the affected parties pay future tariff duties — i.e. you pay another $10mm in tariff duties in the next few months, and we agree to buy those litigation rights at a prescribed price, settling monthly / quarterly.
• We have purchase & sale agreements already in place, so we can move quickly to close and fund transactions.