(Part 1 of 2)

The California’s unclaimed money program takes in roughly $300 million annually. What’s it to you? Well, if you or anyone you know is or ever was a resident of the Golden State (or ever had any type of business dealings, whether you knew it or not), some of that massive pile of California forgotten funds could easily belong to you!

Under the California unclaimed property (or escheat) law, abandoned assets like forgotten checking and savings accounts, uncashed checks and money orders, mineral deposits, salary checks, cash and stock dividends, state of California unclaimed tax refunds, gift certificates, and other financial assets are handed over to the Treasury Department if their owners don’t locate them within a given time period. This ‘dormancy period’ varies from state to state, but in California it’s 3 years. These lost assets then go to the California unclaimed property div, where they sit in the state’s general fund until they are returned to their rightful owners. This is where state officials who handled California unclaimed cash were criticized recently. It appears that they were eager to locate and collect the lost funds from the establishments holding on to them but but weren’t so keen on tracking down the owners in the California unclaimed funds records.

One of the main reasons for the inability of government give back forgotten money to the people it belongs to, they say, is that they can’t be located. The 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 could be hard to track down? Those names and the names of several other famous people are just a few of the names in the California missing money database and yet they haven’t been contacted by the officials in the California Unclaimed Money Division. They’re all owed checks for lost assets by California ranging in amount from hundreds to the thousands as in the case of Angelina Jolie. This proves once again California state employees’ interest in keeping this money in the general fund for them to balance the budget deficit for as long as they possibly can. As a matter of fact, there was recently a ruling by a judge on CA abandoned cash, stating that the state was not trying hard enough to return it to its rightful owners and for a while halted the ability of the state to seize it until a proper method of reuniting it with the rightful owners has been adopted.

(to be continued)

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‘Information detective’ tries to restore names to the missing (Knoxville News Sentinel)
LIVINGSTON, Tenn. – One Halloween night many years ago, a man named Riddle told a 17-year-old boy a chilling, true tale of murder and mystery.

Former Colo. worker says love made her steal $11M (AP via Yahoo! News)
A former Colorado Department of Revenue supervisor says love for her ex-boyfriend led her to steal $11 million in unclaimed tax refunds from the state. The ex-boyfriend, Hysear Randell, is on trial in Denver this week on charges of theft, forgery, computer crime and racketeering.

Ex-state worker says love made her steal $11M – Pueblo Chieftain
DENVER (AP) – A former Colorado Department of Revenue supervisor says love for her ex-boyfriend led her to steal $11 million in unclaimed tax refunds from the state. The ex-boyfriend, Hysear Randell, is on trial in Denver this week on charges of …

Unclaimed EPFO money can’t be utilised: Govt – Zee News
New Delhi: The Government on Monday said it has no plans to utilise unclaimed money of Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) which has accumulated to the tune of Rs 3,837 crore, even as EPFO is making efforts to trace those who have not taken …