Detroit owes crime victim's money

The Detroit Free Press reports that Wayne County courts are sitting on $4 million dollars of restitution that the court collected on behalf of victims of crime. Unfortunately the the county clerks office has done a miserable job of actually looking for the people who are owed the money. Consequently the money just sits in the government's coffers instead of being delivered to the people.

If you were involved in a court case and were awarded restitution payments and are still waiting for a check----You should assume that the government may be too lazy to track you down to mail you the check. I'd suggest that you'd read the FREEP article, and call the county prosecutor and the county clerk to see if the plantiff has made restitution .

Prosecutor Kym Worthy has tried to address the problem for years. She said her office does pass victim information to clerks and is willing to help track down victims, but the clerk's office has stopped asking for help.

Lost in the finger-pointing are the victims who aren't paid -- a grandmother, an autoworker, a student, a disabled adult, business owners, even police and fire departments. For all of them, justice is overdue.

Detroit News story on unclaimed cash

Today the Detroit News did a story on the State of Michigan's web of unclaimed cash. According to the author Brian O'Connor:

But you could be leaving plenty of other money lying around, too. According to the IRS, nearly 1.4 million people missed out on refunds totaling more than $1.3 billion from the 2006 tax year. That included 42,800 Michiganians who left nearly $41 million in the U.S. Treasury, an average of $618 apiece. The window on all that money closed on April 15, meaning they're out of luck.

Besides unclaimed refunds, the IRS also got 107,831 refund checks totaling $123.5 million returned last year from taxpayers who filed their 2008 returns but, in most cases, moved or provided illegible mailing addresses. Or maybe they didn't need the money but just looooovefilling out tax forms.

Michigan wants to escheat funds in Just 3 years to solve budget problems

According to the Detroit News, the state of Michigan is considering to tap unclaimed cash to meet budget shortfalls. Essentially, Michigan's budget deficit could be temporarily helped out by a $200 million (or more) cash infusion from changing the regulations around how the state collects unclaimed funds.

Currently, financial institutions have between 5 and 15 years to turn-over dormant accounts and safe deposit box contents to Michigan's treasurer once they lose contact with the rightful owners. Governor Jennifer Granholm and the State congress want to change the law to shorten the period of time to just 3 years. Should the law pass, the state will get a one time large infusion.

Apparently the lawmakers changed the law to make sure that travelers checks aren't turned over to Lansing until 15 years have elapsed.

In a typical year, the state collects about $115 million and pays out about $70 million. The largest single claim on the state of Michigan's unclaimed assets department was over $1 million from a family of a deceased man who had a bunch of stock that his heirs didn't know about.

Michigan's Missing Money Quest

The Michigan Department of Treasury has an online search tool that lets users search through millions of dollars worth of lost and forgotten assets and valuables from dormant bank acounts---including uncashed checks and stock & bond certificates.

You can search Michigan for unclaimed assets here.