The series of articles, which were first published in April and written by SuffolkJournal.com founding partner Nancy Bock for Suffolk Life Newspapers turned heads at County offices and prompted an in-depth investigation by Comptroller Sawicki regarding unclaimed funds held by the State naming various Suffolk County departments as the rightful recipients of dozens of accounts. The money received yesterday represented 840 separate accounts involving numerous county departments. Of those accounts, only 47 were less than five years old, and some were more than 20 years old. In addition to those funds, state officials said there is an additional $282,000 under further investigation which could also be due the county.

Unclaimed funds accounts were found for nearly every department and office. Of the accounts included in the $180,654 returned on May 21, 60% were for the County Clerk’s office, 12% for the Police Department, 4% each for the Sheriff’s Department, Support Collections Bureau and Supreme Court, and 17% belonged to other departments or offices.

County Executive Steve Levy personally thanked Suffolk Life for “helping lead us to this pot of gold,” and said the check would be deposited immediately, and measures put in place to keep on top of this process in the future.

State officials said its office of unclaimed funds is currently holding more than $8 million of misdirected funds of various types which the state is given custody of until the rightful owner can be located. Under state law, insurance companies, utilities, investment companies and many other businesses are required to surrender money in inactive accounts to the state. Accounts could belong to virtually anyone, including individuals, clubs, associations, all levels of government offices, other states, school and fire districts, businesses or any other entity.

At the present time, New York state government is the guardian of 22 million such accounts, the largest of which is $1.7 million, the smallest, twenty-five cents. The information is listed on the state’s website and available for review at any time (www.osc.state.ny.us). In this instance, Comptroller Sawicki said, the state supplied the county with a disc of the information to help their research efforts.

Levy said, "Getting the money back to the County really means getting the money back to the taxpayers. Suffolk Life’s aggressiveness has reaped great dividends for taxpayers of this county."

DiNapoli added, "Unclaimed funds not as visible a department but it can have a big impact on people's lives. The state is now making a bigger effort to advise people they may have funds in these accounts."

See Suffolk Life Newspapers’ website (www.Suffolklife.com) for the series which prompted the investigation and the potential return of nearly a half million dollars to county taxpayers’ benefit.