Suit has been filed for the recovery of bond money raised by the US government during World War II. The states and federal government are battling over the money. The states claim that they have the right over the money and it should be returned to them. The treasury department of federal government rejects the claim and denies that any such right exists. The fund was raised during World War II by rallying the people to buy the bonds as a patriotic gesture. The fund raising movement was successfully launched due to the most wide-spread and aggressive advertising.
The popular personalities like actors, players, political leaders enthusiastically participated in the campaign and helped the country raise funds for the War. The unclaimed money amounts to around 16 $ billion. The money couldn’t be claimed by the bond holders because of the fact that a huge portion of the unclaimed money consisted of the aggregate of a huge number of bond holders who each had very small amount to claim but their aggregate sum was in billions of dollars. Other reasons for not claiming the bonds were that people forgot to claim or died.
The attorney general representing states alleged that the federal government didn’t even try to locate bond-holders. Their plea is that the states have in-built judicial system to locate those persons and the money should be given to states. The Federal Treasury Department denies the charges and rejects sates’ claim on the ground that it is a false charge on the Treasury Department that it didn’t find the bond-holders. They contend that there website provides full information about any individual’s claim. This proves that their money is not kept elsewhere.
The Treasury Department rejects the perception that the money is “kept in a sack physically”. They are of the view that it is in the form of accounting claims and the actual money was spent on operating expenses of the government. The case will involve constitutional rights and their interpretation. The federal government is of the strong stance that the states don’t have any solid ground to plead. States will make their response to the federal government’s petition for the dismissal of the case by the end of current year.
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