The facts
On October 7, the plaintiffs in Hashim v. Cohen, No. 2:26-cv-06449-GW-SK in the Central District of California, filed a motion asking a federal judge to bar California State Controller Malia Cohen, contractors Kroll LLC and Kelmar Associates LLC, and unclaimed-property administrators’ president Meaghan Aguirre from taking any more property under the state’s Unclaimed Property Law without constitutional notice and due process. The motion accuses the defendants of falsifying the addresses of foreign shareholders to seize and sell their property as “revenue” for the state’s Unclaimed Property Fund and its General Fund.
The plaintiffs are Paul R. Hashim, Karl A. Whitty of the United Kingdom, U.S. Claims Services, Inc., and Edmilson César Martim Jr. of Brazil. According to the motion, Whitty received no notice at all before his property was seized and sold, because officials altered his address from Cardiff, United Kingdom, to “CA [California] 00000.” Whitty eventually filed the paper claim form, which had to be notarized at a United States Embassy, and was recognized as the rightful owner. Seventeen months later the Controller paid him $4,749.95 for shares the motion says would now be worth approximately $15,222.60.
Martim’s loss was bigger. The motion says he is a “known” citizen and resident of Brazil who never abandoned his Google retirement stock savings, worth $708,641.22 at the time of seizure and forced sale. Again, the motion says, Cohen’s office and Kroll altered his address, from “Santa Barbara D’Oeste, Brazil” 13450-005 to “CA [California] 00000.” He got no notice. Martim traveled several hours to a United States Embassy to notarize the Controller’s one-page claim form. Since then, the motion says, his claims for the proceeds of the sale have been denied repeatedly.
As for notifying owners before grabbing their assets, the motion says the Controller issues a generic, inconspicuous 3” x 5” “block” publication notice pointing people to a website and a 1-800 number. “These generic “advertisements” are addressed to no one and are often published on dates calculated to reduce readership, such as Thanksgiving Day.” The motion notes the seizures generate the fifth-highest source of revenue for the state’s General Fund.
Our take
California did not invent a new tax. It invented a better one: steal from people who do not live in California, so nobody shows up to complain. The state controller’s office took a man in Cardiff, Wales, squinted at the address, and decided it said California. Then it typed “CA [California] 00000.” The zip code equivalent of a fake mustache, and sold his stocks. A Brazilian retiree’s $708,641.22 in Google stock got the same treatment. This is not a paperwork error. You do not accidentally convert two foreign addresses into “CA [California] 00000.” That is a business model, and a lucrative one: the motion says these seizures are the fifth-biggest revenue line in the General Fund. Sacramento is running a fence operation with a website.
The “notice” is the best part. A tiny block ad in the newspaper, published on Thanksgiving Day, telling nobody in particular to check a website to see if the state already took their stuff. Even the prior controller publicly apologized and called the seizures “dead wrong” and Cohen’s crew kept the machine humming anyway. Then, when the victims do everything right, drive hours to an embassy, get the wet signature, prove they own the property, the Controller hands one guy a third of what his shares are worth and tells the other guy to fuck off, repeatedly. Malia Cohen is not reuniting owners with lost property. She is running the country’s most polite armed robbery, and the gun is a rubber stamp.
