H.J. Heinz Co. needs to catch up.
Pennsylvania State Treasurer audits the the well known ketchup Company to find it owes about $500,000 in unclaimed property.
State treasurer Robert Casey said the Pittsburgh-based food maker failed to fully report $353,220 in accounts payable checks and $157,290 in uncashed payroll checks.
Also found in the audit which covered January 1, 1993 to December 31, 2001 were 2,364 shares of commons stock unreported. This is stock that was abandoned by shareholders for various reasons.
Per Pennsylvania law, companies must remit uncashed payroll checks every two years, while uncashed company checks and abandoned shares are to be remitted every five years.
It was reported that the third party provider used by Heinz to prepare their abandoned property report failed to include all of the shares. During the audit, Heinz asked the provider to examine its records for accuracy, and Heinz did pay the treasury department $90,279 for abandoned shares.
It was noted by Casey that the company did not have policies or procedures to ensure that its older unclaimed property was properly remitted to the state. Casey also stated the company cooperated with the audit and that it had about five months to pay or file a petition to review the audit.
To those that have left the employement of H.J. Heinz Company and not recieved your final paycheck or feel you may have legal ownership of the abandonded shares. Go to CashUnclaimed.com and find out how how much and how to claim this money.
If in reading this you felt you may have unclaimed money, you too can do a free search with CashUnclaimed.com. It does not matter which state you live in currently or which state the money may be held in. The company has a database that includes all the states.
