(Part 2 of 2)

One of the main reasons for the inability of government give back forgotten cash to residents, they claim, is that they cannot be tracked down. Problem is, who would think people like Angelina Jolie, ZsaZsa Gabor, Gerri Halliwell, Victoria Beckham, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Marlon Brando and Jennifer Lopez could be difficult to track down? Those names and the names of several other celebrities are just a few of the names in the Cali missing money database and yet they haven’t been contacted by the employees at the California Unclaimed Funds Division. They’re all owed checks for forgotten funds by Cali ranging in amount from hundreds to the thousands as in the case of Angelina Jolie. This just shows Cali state officials’ interest in holding this cash in the general fund for use in balancing the budget deficits for as long as they possibly can. In fact, there was recently a ruling by a federal judge on CA abandoned cash, stating that the state wasn’t trying hard enough to locate the rightful owners and for a while halted the ability of the state to take and hold it until a better policy of reuniting it with the actual owners was adopted.

The total dollar amount for these funds in CA averages $5 billion annually – just imagine the amount of interest this accrues for the state! Sacramento attorney Bill Palmer who has battled in numerous cases involving California unclaimed property, said the state’s department was supposed to be a lost and found of sorts for Californians. Sadly, it was turned into a profit making ‘business’ in the past few years.

The ban on the taking of property by CA has recently 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 handles CA unclaimed money. There is still a great need though for Californians and Americans in all states across the U.S. to learn about the presence of these properties and on how to perform a thorough search for them and take back what belongs to them.

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Need money? $300 million unclaimed in Oregon (KATU Portland)
The state of Oregon has over $300 million in unclaimed money from inactive bank accounts, unclaimed tax refunds, old payroll checks and more. Check to see if the state has money for you.

Tenn. Fails To Collect Outstanding Money (WSMV Nashville)
At a time when every penny counts, Tennessee has money that it has failed to collect.

Digital TV Bypassing Skid Row (New America Media)
The federal government may have delayed the massive digital television conversion to June 12, but thousands of poor residents say they may still be left in the dark.

Oregon has millions in unclaimed money for residents, heirs – kgw.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — Have you forgotten about an old safe deposit box? Maybe you overpaid an insurance company or received an inheritance you never knew about? Finding your money is easy. KGW visited a secure vault in Salem where the state keeps …

How Come SoundExchange Is Holding Onto Over $100 Million? – Tech Dirt
Weve talked about the ridiculousness of the various music collections societies being involved in the discussions on new music business models. To them, the answer is always the same: add another license and let us collect it. Theyre middlemen and …