Fred Pace
Imagine finding out the state was holding $965,000 of your unclaimed property. That’s exactly what happened to a Raleigh County coal operator Wednesday.
Direct Coal Sales, a subsidiary of a major Raleigh County coal operator, was presented the check at the Raleigh County Commission on Aging by officials from the state treasurer’s office.
Bill Wooton, a Beckley attorney representing the coal operator, accepted the check on behalf of the company.
“My client was very surprised about this, as one can imagine,” Wooton said.
Apparently, it was money that was refunded pursuant to a contract provision with Appalachian Power, according to Wooton.
“My client didn’t really anticipate the refund and apparently Appalachian Power failed to properly transmit the money to the client and it got lost in the mail, so to speak,” Wooton said.
Wooton said he was eating lunch in Beckley when he first heard of the large amount of the unclaimed property.
“Jack Roop and Jim Blume with the treasurer’s office mentioned this sizable sum of money and I told them it was a company I had done some work for,” Wooton said. “So that started the beginning of tracking down and verifying that this money did in fact belong to my client.”
State Treasurer John Perdue was not present for the presentation of the check and was represented by Assistant Treasurer Paul Hill.
“This is the largest-ever unclaimed property check issued by the state of West Virginia,” Hill said.
Hill added that the state treasurer is responsible for implementing the West Virginia Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.
“Under this legislation, the treasurer is the custodian of all unclaimed property in the state,” Hill explained. “Unclaimed property includes items such as bank accounts, matured insurance policies, stocks, bonds, safe deposit box contents, weapons and a wide variety of other items abandoned by their original owners. The property is collected, processed and kept or auctioned under the treasurer’s authority.”
Hill said money from the program is deposited in the state’s general revenue account or held indefinitely until the original owner or their heirs can be found.
“The state holds approximately 400,000 accounts worth $100,000,000,” he said.
Since 1997, the Unclaimed Property Division has returned approximately $60 million to rightful owners and collected over $92 million from businesses.
Hill urged everyone in attendance to check to find out if they or one of their relatives has unclaimed property.
“You can go read the publications we put out or go online at www.wvsto.com to find out if you have unclaimed property being held by the state,” Hill said.
— E-mail: fpace
@register-herald.com
