The New York City Department of Finance received a check for $1.67 million after Public Advocate Letitia James did an investigation that uncovered more than 2,000 accounts with unclaimed funds listed for New York City government. Working alongside New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office and the New York City Department of Finance, James reviewed the accounts and reclaimed the money that was owed to the City.
“It is important that New York City receive every penny it is owed by the State so we can better serve our taxpayers,” said James. “Some of these accounts had clearly not been reviewed in decades, and New Yorkers were owed over one and a half million dollars. We need more cooperation like this between the City and State to ensure New York’s fiscal health. Moving forward, my office will partner with the state comptroller to review these accounts on a quarterly basis.”
James discovered that thousands of unclaimed funds registered to New York City government were left unidentified by the NYC Department of Finance, due to the accounts being registered under various names and spellings.
Unclaimed funds refer to money in inactive accounts, held by institutions like banks, insurance companies, corporations, and courts, with no contact made with the owner. State law requires that these funds are reported and turned over to the state comptroller’s office where the owners may retrieve the money in these accounts. These records, some dating back to the 1980s, also included unclaimed funds from non-mayoral institutions, such as City Council offices.
“New York State is holding $14 billion in lost money, and we return more than a million dollars a day to the rightful owners,” said DiNapoli. “It can be tricky to connect lost money, even to cities like New York who regularly check for unclaimed funds, when the account names are abbreviated or unclear. Public Advocate James deserves credit for working with our office to uncover money owed to New York City government, and we will continue work with her to ensure that every dime is accounted for on behalf of city taxpayers.”
