Big Sky Times

HELENA – Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced today that Montana will receive over $900,000 in a multi-state settlement, ending the outstanding damages phase of an unclaimed property dispute with Delaware.

The dispute originated after states discovered Delaware was misapplying federal law in advising MoneyGram Payment Systems, Inc. (“MoneyGram”) to allocate unclaimed official checks to Delaware instead of back to the states where those financial instruments were purchased. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Montana and its 29 other coalition partners, holding that unclaimed official checks issued by MoneyGram, which is headquartered in Delaware, are governed by the Federal Disposition Act, which states that the unclaimed property in question should be transferred to the state it originally came from.

Montana will receive $901,528 of the total $190 million multi-state settlement that will be directly deposited into the state’s general fund.

Under the terms of the settlement, Delaware will transfer more than $102 million of the property that MoneyGram reported to Delaware from 2011 to 2017 to the coalition states, based on each monetary instrument’s place of purchase.

In addition, approximately $89 million deposited by MoneyGram in a litigation escrow account from 2018 to 2022, plus interest earned, will be distributed among all 50 states based on each instrument’s place of purchase. The coalition states will receive nearly $55 million, plus earned interest, from the escrow account. States will assume custody and responsibility to return any property received under the terms of the settlement or from the escrow account to owners, including paying any claims for the property.

The settlement agreement ends the outstanding parts of the ongoing litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court.