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

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

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