Florida Gives Donald Trump $54,000 in Unclaimed Property
Former President Doanld Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida on March 5, 2024. Trump on Tuesday was alerted to $54,000 in unclaimed assets in the state of Florida.
Donald Trump has $54,000 in unclaimed assets, according to Florida’s chief financial officer.
Jimmy Patronis, a Republican who was appointed the state’s CFO in 2017, alerted Trump to the unclaimed assets in a post to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. The funds may come from dormant bank accounts, stocks or dividends, but it is not known exactly where Trump’s unclaimed assets originated.
Patronis wrote that his office found the assets by doing a search for Trump’s properties in Florida. The former president resides at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach.
Patronis encouraged Trump to claim the assets, given his legal troubles. Trump is facing four criminal cases, including the ongoing trial in New York on charges of falsifying business documents in the Manhattan district attorney’s hush money case. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has accused prosecutors of targeting him for political purposes.
“There are some very, very nasty people coming after you, and every dollar matters in your efforts to fight back against these radical state attorneys who have weaponized the courts,” Patronis wrote. “We need you and your team to have every resource possible to get through these BS charges so you can get back to work in Making America Great Again!”
He added that Florida is “proud to host many Trump properties and businesses” and is “honored to have you and your family as residents of the Sunshine State.”
Amid his legal battles—which also include two federal criminal indictments and a case in Fulton County, Georgia—Trump is facing growing fees to pay his attorneys working on the various cases. He has been paying his lawyers using the Save America PAC, which has spent more than $62 million on legal fees since January 2023.
Trump has paid more than $100 million in legal bills since leaving office in 2021, according to a March 27 report from The New York Times. In addition to paying his lawyers, Trump was required to post a $175 million bond in a civil business fraud case as he appeals a New York court’s ruling against him.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment via email
In his tweet, Patronis wrote that the system is “designed to return lost or unknown financial assets back to the original owners” and has returned nearly $2.4 billion in unclaimed property to Florida residents.
The unclaimed property is typically held by business or government entities for a set period and is reported to the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property, if unclaimed, according to a press release from Patronis.
Update 5/7/24, 12:40 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information and background.
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