Free Republic

Nearly 15 years ago, the state of California seized about $25,000 worth of stock that Richard Valdes had set aside and forgotten about. He's been fighting to get it back almost ever since. Valdes' stock was in an escrow account that the state declared dormant. But no one from the government tried to contact him before the shares were taken and sold. Valdes said he was effectively robbed of stock that would now be worth at least $100,000. "It's unbelievable to me that they can destroy records and sell your property without notifying you," Valdes, 71, said. "I've lived in...

The state's habitual seizure of supposedly unclaimed property in bank and stock brokerage accounts, safety deposit boxes and other repositories of wealth has always been more than a little questionable. The theory of "escheat," as it's called, is faintly medieval, assuming that idle property can be taken by a king for his personal use by divine right, a distant cousin of the doctrine of "eminent domain" under which property may be taken for public use. California, however, refined it into a lucrative source of income, even making it easier to seize property when the state's budget was, as it often...

New lawmaker wants to get his hands on unused gift card funds We all know how Robin of Loxley got on the wrong side of Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham. He killed one of the king's deer. But how did the king come to own the deer of Sherwood? Had he played midwife to the gentle doe who bore those deer as spotted fawns? Had he made sure men were dispatched to the forest each winter with plenty of hay and other silage to make sure the deer had enough to eat? Had he bought the forest --...

He says expired gift card money should flow to treasury Incoming freshman Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen, a Las Vegas Democrat, would like to see expiring gift card money flow to the state treasury by defining it as abandoned property. Photo by Jeff Scheid. CARSON CITY -- Incoming freshman Assemblyman Ruben Kihuen went out to dinner with a friend recently, planning to use a $100 gift card he had received last year as a Christmas gift to pay for the meal. To Kihuen's dismay, the gift card had expired, meaning the high-end restaurant that issued the card had received a $100 windfall...