$485,000 in unclaimed property transferred from Secretary of State’s office to Treasurer

Denver, June 9, 2011 – Secretary of State Scott Gessler announced today that his office will transfer $485,000 of unclaimed overpayments to Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton’s Department of Unclaimed Property.

The funds mostly come from overpayments for transactions with the Secretary of State’s office prior to June 30, 2009.  The majority of the $485,000 is primarily related to business filings, but also includes transactions from bingo, raffles, notary and elections.

“This money belongs to businesses and people across Colorado, and we want to be sure it gets returned to them,” Gessler said. “While my office has already taken steps to prevent these overpayments in the future, the Unclaimed Property division acts as an efficient clearinghouse for residents to find overpayments owed to them and an avenue to collect those dollars.”

Colorado’s Department of Unclaimed Property is administered by Colorado’s Treasurer and houses over $200 million in unclaimed cash and property belonging to over 2 million Coloradans.  Treasurer Stapleton’s office recently launched the Great Colorado Payback, a media campaign to raise awareness of the Unclaimed Property Department and to help Coloradans find their property.

“I am glad Secretary Gessler knows where to go when he has some extra money lying around,” joked Stapleton.  “But on a serious note, our goal is to return more money to Colorado taxpayers than has ever been returned in one year and I think we are on track to do that.  I encourage everyone to call our offices or check the website to see if their name is on our list.” 

Citizens can check the website www.GreatCoPayback.com or call 1-800-825-2111 to see if they have unclaimed property with the state of Colorado.