What do I do with this money?
July 23, 2015 9:01 AM   Subscribe

I find myself in possession of $2500 that isn't mine, and due to a series of events I'm not sure what to do with it.

In a prior job, I occasionally did informal outreach (upon direction from a C-level exec). Some of this involved small relatively informal engineering competitions among adults, and my company sponsored some prizes. Three of these prizes were Amex gift-checks for $2500 apiece, drawn from random company funds based on the authority of the C-exec (ie., basically zero paper trail on their end).

A couple years ago, I took a buyout and left the company. The company still exists, but is declining and will likely be sold. Most of the people I knew there are gone, with three exceptions I could still get in touch with, although they're not in the division I was in.

While putting away old papers, I found a fourth $2500 gift check. I was unaware this existed until now; I thought I'd disbursed all of the prizes, and it may in fact have been given to me in error. It's from American Express, and is blank, so anyone can claim it.

Now what? Will I get in trouble if I try to give it back to them? Should I just throw it away? Give it to some homeless person? Give it to a random engineer who "won" a fourth contest that never existed? If I give it away, will that homeless dude get arrested?

At the moment I'm inclined to burn it, but that seems also wrong and wasteful.
posted by anonymous to Work & Money (25 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I'm not sure why you wouldn't give it back to the company. That's what you should do. I don't know why you would get in trouble for that. Send it with an explanation and by certified mail.
posted by OmieWise at 9:04 AM on July 23, 2015 [23 favorites]


It's possible that this was already refunded by AMEX if the company thinks it was lost.

But I really don't see any harm in returning it.
posted by French Fry at 9:09 AM on July 23, 2015 [7 favorites]


I expect that, based on the age of the check, the funds have been escheated to the state that the check was issued in. This is the process where dormant funds are turned over, pending a claim, to the state treasury. If you can find out if the check has been escheated from AMEX, and in which state, you can determine what you need to do to claim the money. I don't know what kind of documentation they will require from you, or if there are any legal issues that you would expose yourself to.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 9:10 AM on July 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


"Dear CFO of Former Company, I found this while clearing out some old paperwork at home. No idea how it ended up in my possession, best regards."

It's not yours, it belongs to someone else, return it.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:14 AM on July 23, 2015 [32 favorites]


Return it. Of course.
posted by yogalemon at 9:18 AM on July 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


According to the Amex website, they do not expire:
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/content/prepaid/gift-cheques/faqs.html#14.

It sounds like a never-expiring gift voucher, essentially?

It *sounds* like, unless someone at the company HAS applied to have it refunded, the money is with Amex.
Therefore, DO NOT BURN IT. I feel you have a moral obligation to make sure someone who is not the credit card company gets it.
Just send it back to your old company, anonymously if you feel the need.

If you really, really can't handle doing that (why? Seriously, just return it to the old company!), and are going to burn/destroy it, then please drop it in a charity box instead.
It's either been refunded to your old company and won't clear, or it'll go to that charity instead of Amex.
posted by Elysum at 9:20 AM on July 23, 2015


Mail it back to the accounting department with a letter explaining the situation. You can even address it to Engineering Firm/Accounting Department/1500 Engineering BLVD/Industrial City, if you like. The mail room will sort it out.

It doesn't matter where the money is - refunded, with the state, still attached to the check. This will become the company's problem, or not become a problem if they've already dealt with it.

If you don't want to do that, shred it. Basically, it's the company's, it's not a negligible item like a $5 gift card or a logo coffee mug and frankly you're always going to worry about it a bit if you don't get it off your plate.
posted by Frowner at 9:20 AM on July 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


Mail it back to the company and never think about it again.
posted by prize bull octorok at 9:24 AM on July 23, 2015


DO NOT BURN IT.

Ethically, the money belongs to the company. I can't see why you would get in trouble for giving it back. That doesn't make any sense. Mail it to them (via certified mail) and explain that you found this gift cheque that had been given to you in error.
posted by inturnaround at 9:27 AM on July 23, 2015 [4 favorites]


I can't see why you would get in trouble for giving it back. That doesn't make any sense.

Because someone could freak out and say, "anonymous stole this money that he is now returning!" and then start filing charges against him. Things that don't make sense happen every day.
posted by thelonius at 9:28 AM on July 23, 2015 [5 favorites]


In the spirit of the check, run a small engineering contest. Or, another contest in which you feel it is worthwhile to give out the prize.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 9:48 AM on July 23, 2015


In the spirit of the check, run a small engineering contest.

No, that would be embezzlement. Really, run a contest because the company would have wanted it that way?

Return the check to its owner. Certified, with a cover letter.
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:52 AM on July 23, 2015 [7 favorites]


Your former company spent money to buy that certificate. If you do anything other than give it back to them, you have misappropriated it. If you give it back, the absolute worst they can do is say you should have given it back sooner, but since you have not used it you have done no wrong. Write, as others have said, a letter explaining the circumstances, and give it back. The moral and financial orders will be restored.
posted by ubiquity at 10:03 AM on July 23, 2015 [14 favorites]


While it may be tempting to pull an Oda Mae Brown (youtube), you really should just send the money back to the company.
posted by alms at 10:50 AM on July 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


Sitting squarely in the "return it" camp. The only thing I'd add - are there any other of the company's "old papers" or data you took with you (accidentally or otherwise)? I ask because suggesting you could "give it to a random engineer" made me think that maybe you still have a list of the original competition entries somewhere....which would likely not be cool at all.....

If so they should also be returned (or destroyed if appropriate - for example like old copies of internal newsletters, backup data files you made etc). Many employment contracts have conditions specifically related to returning all documents and materials over at the end of your employment, and you may potentially be in breach of that if you keep anything else. In some regulated industries that can be a big deal impacting your future employment opportunities if it becomes an issue.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 10:55 AM on July 23, 2015


If you give it back, the absolute worst they can do is say you should have given it back sooner, but since you have not used it you have done no wrong.

This seems naive to me. The absolute worst they might reasonably do is assert that you took paperwork home in violation of company policy or failed to return all company materials at the end of your employment, either way violating the terms of your payout, so the company gets your payout back. With interest. And other totally made up damages -- Pat the Engineer didn't get an award and left the firm in anger and that loss of expertise cost us eleventy bazillion dollars in contracts. And even if they're almost certain to lose, defending yourself will still cost a lot. Such that even if the company knows that they have no real case, they might sue you anyway in the hopes that you'll write them a check to make them go away.

Unfortunately the best answer will probably be to spend a few hundred dollars on an hour or two of an attorney's time.

Without speaking to an attorney and not being one, the naive decision theory here doesn't suggest returning it. If the company is Nice, the outcome for Anonymous is nothing. No change at all. But if the company is Nasty, the outcome for Anonymous can be deeply negative. The question is whether the company's "type" is Nice or Nasty. But it's a company, so any Bayesian prior should be strongly on the side of the company's type being "completely amoral psychopath."

In the absence of advice from an attorney, I'd suggest just putting it back in whatever drawer you found it in and let the company ask for it back if they want rather than poking that bear, even you're poking it to be nice to it.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:29 AM on July 23, 2015 [18 favorites]


Is there any way you can mail it back anonymously?
posted by Too-Ticky at 11:50 AM on July 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


If you use the check it's my understanding this would be "conversion" and bring you into the realm of embezzlement. Things may vary in your jurisdiction, but personally I'd want to avoid that. Similarly, if you just keep the check (without using it) with the intent to deprive the owner access to the funds this may bring you into the realm of theft/larceny as I understand it.

IANAL, but pretty much anything other than immediately returning the check to your former employer seems to get pretty damn near some crimes. Consulting a lawyer may be wise, barring that I'd say returning it (possibly anonymously) is the way to go.
posted by Matt Oneiros at 11:55 AM on July 23, 2015


What you should do: Return it with a note explaining that it was wrongly filed in your paperwork to one of the people you still know there and let them either return it with that story (if the company is generally not evil) or "find it" in a random filing cabinet somewhere.

What I would probably do: Feel out the folks who still work there, maybe wait for the company to be sold and see if anyone comes to claim it. If not, look for ways to cash it in the most anonymous manner possible — I wouldn't want my name or signature on anything that could be traced back, so I wouldn't be depositing it or anything. Maybe look into buying bitcoins. But I'm not a Kantian.
posted by klangklangston at 12:27 PM on July 23, 2015


Ethically, the money belongs to the company

Legally, the money belongs to the company.

Don't over think this. Just mail it back with a simple letter to the CFO, saying you were going through old files, came across this, and recognized it as a reward that was never awarded and you wanted to return it to the company for their use.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 12:48 PM on July 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


I disagree that it definitely belongs to the company. It was meant to be given away for a contest, the company did get the publicity value for sponsoring the contest, and surely the company has written it off on their taxes as a business expense. Was the contest run by the company, or by a 3rd party?
I would anonymously mail it to the EFF with a just a printout of this post's url and let them debate it.
posted by Sophont at 3:26 PM on July 23, 2015


Ha, no. You're not doing the EFF any favors by dragging them into this murky legal situation.
posted by ryanrs at 11:00 PM on July 23, 2015 [3 favorites]


Don't return this right now, but don't not return it.

I like the lawyer idea. I've seen the "hey i have this thing i shouldn't have" turn in to "AHA YOU'RE BUSTED" more than once. It's someones fault you have it. Even if that person doesn't work there anymore, there's still someone who could at least see themselves getting pushed under the bus, and it's in their interest to paint a target on you.

You're going to end up returning this or something, but i think just walking back in with it is naive.
posted by emptythought at 3:45 AM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ethically and legally, you give it back.

But ... as this was years ago, that money is considered gone-daddy-gone by the company. They've closed the annual books on those accounts. In fact, it really is gone from their perspective -- this is not money being held in an escrow account which they can consider an asset. They bought a service from Amex. That part of the transaction is fully complete.

If you send this back to your company, they will have no pragmatic means of returning it to their bank accounts. If I were the exec that opened your letter, I'd cash it myself and then spend it on office morale stuff -- donuts-and-coffee and catered lunches.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:45 PM on July 24, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm not telling you what to do, but I am interested in suggesting how you might do it.

If you decide
a) to give this money back to the company
b) without talking to a lawyer first

please consider sending it back anonymously. I'm on the same page as ROU_Xenophobe here. What could happen? Well, the company could press charges, because it's entirely possible that legally (jurisdiction, details, etc), you have stolen from them. Returning what you've (legally) stolen, while admirable in the extreme, does not erase the fact that you are guilty of (legally) stealing it in the first place. In fact, returning it actually makes a pretty strong case for your guilt!

If you are hoping that the company might want to reward your honesty one way or another, talk to a lawyer and see what your liabilities are before going forward.

If you just want to do, you know, a thing, then put it in an envelope and address it to the person you think is most appropriate at the company. Enclose a letter that doesn't identify yourself, and has as few details as necessary (and for Pete's sake don't put a return address on it) to communicate what that check is and what its original purpose may have been.


PS Generally speaking, "trust the company to treat you with fairness and respect" is terrible, terrible advice.
posted by Poppa Bear at 6:25 AM on July 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


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