Florida Is Holding $3 Billion in Forgotten Money. Investigators Say Seven People Tried to Collect It in the Names of Countrywide and Washington Mutual.

Florida's warnings about unclaimed money are built to protect the living. The state will never text you, and you never have to pay anyone to search. The scheme investigators described this week was built around a different kind of owner: companies that collapsed or were sold off years ago. According to a probable cause affidavit reported by Local10, seven people filed about 57 claims with Florida's unclaimed property program between 2022 and 2024, asking for $1,990,533.71 the state was holding for businesses. The names on the paperwork included Countrywide Home Loans and Washington Mutual, two of the biggest casualties of the 2008 mortgage collapse, along with GMAC Mortgage, American Home Mortgage and other lenders. Investigators say the group first filed documents with the state's corporations office to look like the people in charge of those companies, then asked to be paid. Eight claims worked, for $240,466.58. The case raises a hard question about how Florida decides who speaks for a company that has failed or been sold, and it sits on top of a fund that holds more than $3 billion, with money waiting for about one in five Floridians.