(Part 2 of 2)

One of the primary reasons for the inability of government give back forgotten cash to the people it belongs to, they claim, is the fact that they can’t be tracked down. Problem is, would would ever think people like Jennifer Lopez, Victoria Beckham, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Angelina Jolie ,Marlon Brando, Keanu Reeves, ZsaZsa Gabor and Gerri Halliwell would be hard to track down? Those names and the names of several other celebrities are just a few of the names in the Cali missing money list and yet they have never been contacted by the employees at the California Unclaimed Money Division. They are all owed checks for forgotten funds by Cali ranging in amount from hundreds to the thousands in Ms. Jolie’s case. This just shows Cali state employees’ interest in keeping this cash in the general fund for use in balancing the budget deficits for as long as they can. As a matter of fact, there was a recent ruling by a federal judge on CA abandoned money, stating that the state was not doing enough to return it to its rightful owners and has temporarily halted the state’s s ability to take and hold it until a better policy of reuniting it with the actual owners has been adopted.

The total amount of unclaimed money in California averages five billion dollars annually – imagine the amount of interest this accrues for the state! Sacramento attorney Bill Palmer who has represented a number of cases involving CA unclaimed money, has said that the state’s program was supposed to be a lost and found for residents of California. Instead, it was turned into a profit making ‘business’ in the past few years.

The hold on the seizure of property by CA has since been removed and the new CA State Controller, John Chiang, is making greater efforts in the form of sweeping reforms in improving how his office is handling California unclaimed property. There’s still a great need though for Californians and residents of all other states across the U.S. to be informed about the presence of these funds and on how to perform a thorough search for them.

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• Late filers can still get money – WEYI NBC25

• Late filers can still get money WEYI NBC25, MI - Aug 1, 2008 The IRS says there is about $46.4 in unclaimed money right now. If you need help filing your taxes, you can contact the Michigan League for Human Services …

Senior citizens: There may be money for you – TheNewsTribune.com

Senior citizens: There may be money for you TheNewsTribune.com, WA - 4 hours ago The header on the e-mail from Associated Ministries’ Barbara Gorzinski was irresistible: “Unclaimed ESP in Washington communities.” “Woo hoo!” I thought. …

Region’s low-income seniors drive glut of unclaimed stimulus checks (The Washington Examiner)
More than 230,000 federal stimulus checks remain unclaimed in Maryland, Virginia and the District, the Internal Revenue Service says, prompting broad outreach efforts to help poor, disabled and elderly residents collect more than $70 million in payments before an October deadline.

Unclaimed Refunds Gather Cobwebs in County Coffers – San Diego Business Journal

Unclaimed Refunds Gather Cobwebs in County Coffers San Diego Business Journal, CA - Jul 31, 2008 The county has about $145000 in unclaimed money it has in form of overcharges and refunds that it wants to return to individuals and businesses, …

$9 billion in unclaimed funds (News 10 NBC Rochester)
New Yorkers can find out if they are owed some of the state’s $9 billion in unclaimed funds at events across the state in July…