§ 116B-76.  Interstate agreements and cooperation; joint and reciprocal actions with other states.

(a) The Treasurer may enter into an agreement with another state to exchange information relating to abandoned property or its possible existence. The agreement may permit the other state, or another person acting on behalf of a state, to examine records as authorized in G.S. 116B-72. The Treasurer by rule may require the reporting of information needed to enable compliance with an agreement made under this section and prescribe the form.

(b) The Treasurer may join with another state to seek enforcement of this Chapter against any person who is or may be holding property reportable under this Chapter.

(c) At the request of another state, the Attorney General of this State may maintain an action on behalf of the other state to enforce, in this State, the unclaimed property laws of the other state against a holder of property subject to escheat or a claim of abandonment by the other state, if the other state has agreed to pay expenses incurred by the Attorney General in maintaining the action.

(d) The Treasurer may request that the attorney general of another state or another attorney commence an action in the other state on behalf of the Treasurer. With the approval of the Attorney General of this State, the Treasurer may retain any other attorney to commence an action in this State on behalf of the Treasurer. This State shall pay all expenses, including attorneys' fees, in maintaining an action under this subsection. With the Treasurer's approval, the expenses and attorneys' fees may be paid from money received under this Chapter. The Treasurer may agree to pay expenses and attorneys' fees based in whole or in part on a percentage of the value of any property recovered in the action. Any expenses or attorneys' fees paid under this subsection may not be deducted from the amount that is subject to the claim by the owner under this Chapter.

(e) The Treasurer is authorized to make such expenditures from the funds of the Escheat Fund as may be necessary to effectuate the provisions of this section. (1979, 2nd Sess., c. 1311, s. 1; 1999-460, s. 6.)