Kleptocracy

[unixronin]

The Silver Bear Cafe reports on the State of California, among others, redefining "unclaimed property" in order to loot their citizens' safe-deposit boxes to balance their budgets.  California has misappropriated $5.1 billion worth of Californian citizens' property to sell it off — often at pennies on the dollar — and dump the money into the state's general fund.

"They figured the safety-deposit box was safer than keeping it under the mattress," [attorney Bill] Palmer said.  "In the case of a lot of citizens, they were wrong, weren't they?"

[...]

California became so addicted to spending people's money, that, for years, it simply stopped sending notices to the rightful owners.  ABC News obtained a 1996 internal memo in which the lawyer for the Bureau of Unclaimed Property argued against expanding programs to notify rightful owners.  He wrote, "It could well result in additional claims of monies that would otherwise flow into the general fund."

(Pointer from mrmeval)

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

that's... amazing.

especially when someone comes forward to claim their "stuff", like say, oh, $4,000,000. wtf?

not only should they receive huge damages on top of their "stuff", the people involved shoudl be taken to trial on civil charges and rawr. my gods.

i'm going to have to tell my dad about this one, even though they supposedly are better now.

a few years ago, i was shocked to find out the bank had flatlined an account with $$$ in it. it was immediately reinstated officially, however, because they had TWO listings for my name/address, and supposedly were sending certified letters to the one with the typo, i never saw their alerts for the 8 years they say they send them. NH keeps things in trust in perpetuity fortunately. still, i was receiving full interest, and my statement reflected this. yes. i got my statements. yes, they saw activity (withdrawals/transfers) on all accounts but that one. i'm mean, wtf? they took my money, even in light of the fact i went in to buy a CD and they had my account data right there several times. one alert lady said "oh, your account foo is marked for culling, good thing you came in." uhm, sure. fix that? thanx.

#

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

California's fiscal problems are legendary and once again in the news, so it's reasonable to question whether the state can afford to repay its citizens if a bunch of them surface at once.

And of course, if they do pay them all back, they'll just do it with other stolen money. (Taxes.)

Still, I think that putting the CA governor and legislature in jail until they figure this one out would be an appropriate solution. I'm thinking San Quentin. That 1996 lawyer referenced needs to be put under the jail.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

That 1996 lawyer referenced needs to be put under the jail.

+1.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

oh dear. good thing the grandmommies are paranoid about tracking their paperwork and whatnot.

[lwj2.livejournal.com]

I do hope those running for office in the next state election point out that a vote for the incumbent is a vote for thievery.

It would be even better if the U.S. Attorney decided to prosecute them for violation of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Although I'm sure the DoJ could manage to screw up an open and shut case fairly easily. After all, they managed to screw up prosecuting the Pentagon Papers case.