NY State is sitting on 10 billion in unclaimed funds - for Angelina Jolie, Spike Lee, and maybe YOU

BY authors Ryan Lavis and James Fanelli
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Saturday, July 17th 2010, 4:00 AM

Lanzano, Bjorgvinsson/AP

Both Spike Lee (l.) and Angenlina Jolie have unclaimed funds being held for them by the state of New York, as do many residents.

The state is sitting on $10.5 billion that belongs to Angelina Jolie, the fat cats at Goldman Sachs - and maybe even you.

It comes from 25 million inactive bank, business and government accounts unclaimed by their owners and in the care of the state controller's office.

Star Jolie has uncashed checks from the state Department of Taxation and Finance from 2004 and 2005, the database shows.

Director Spike Lee has a refund from his dental plan waiting, and former Yankees skipper Joe Torre has a credit balance with a water company dating back to 2002.

To encourage people to check if they are due unclaimed funds, the controller's office is hosting information sessions around the state this week.

At an event yesterday at state Sen. Kevin Parker's Flatbush office, 10 people stopped by to see if they had dough they didn't know about.

"A lot of people leave here very happy. It's like Christmas," said Debra Dilan, a representative of the controller's office.

She said four people who showed up had some cash coming.

"Debra, you made my day," Joseph said. "I was at the drug store and saw a sign.

"So I said, 'Why not check?' Looks like it paid off."

Dilan couldn't say immediately how much Joseph is owed, but $50 is the minimum amount in an unclaimed fund.

State law requires banks, insurance companies, utilities and other businesses to surrender inactive accounts to the controller's office for safekeeping.

People can search the claims by calling the office or visiting it's website, which the article doesn't mention so we'll send you to the

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