[Retric]

It's surprisingly frequent, though generally short lived.

Legal and profitable mob run businesses are taken over vs shut down then resold once the books are clean. During World War II, Washington seized dozens of companies including railroads, coal mines and, briefly, the Montgomery Ward department store chain. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/business/worldbusiness/13i... Banks are probably the most common but it can also happen in bankruptcy.

Generally ownership is short lived though.

[icebraining]

So, we have:

- Seizing companies literally run by criminal organizations.

- A single time during war when companies were nationalized, and which was then ruled "an unconstitutional abuse of presidential power".

- A bailout of the shareholders and creditors of failed companies.

The only relevant one seems to be the second, and the outcome in the courts doesn't sound promising.

[Retric]

You misread the WWII example which was considered completely ok. In different war: "In 1952, President Harry Truman seized 88 steel mills across the country, asserting that unyielding owners were determined to provoke an industry-wide strike that would cripple the Korean War effort. That forced nationalization did not last long, since the Supreme Court ruled 6-2 the action an unconstitutional abuse of presidential power." (You might want to read it vs skim.)

Also of note, their are thousands of examples in history, this is just referencing a few hundred to make a point.

PS: It's also worth noting that the mob example was taking control not just ownership. These companies where money laundering for example so they needed to remove people from the payroll who did not work there.

[icebraining]

Consider myself properly chided. Still, I don't think the case was "considered completely ok". From what I can tell from newspapers of the time, the case was dismissed when the governmental occupation ended.