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.

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