8427     WARRANTS—FORGERIES 
(Revised 2/98)

When a payee maintains that the proceeds from a paid state warrant were not received, the State Controller’s Office (SCO), Division of Disbursements and Support, will furnish photocopies of both sides of the warrant.  If after reviewing the endorsement, the payee alleges that the endorsement is a forgery, the payee must write to the SCO informing them that a forgery has been committed.  All pertinent data, including the original warrant, may be turned over to SCO, Special Investigations, for review and possible investigation.  If it appears that the endorsement is a forgery, the SCO’s Division of Disbursements and Support will be informed and all pertinent data, including four (4) photocopies of the original warrant, will be forwarded to the State Treasurer’s Office (STO), Item Processing.

The STO will then send three copies of the Forged Endorsement Affidavit, STO-CA-0034, to the payee to be signed.  All three copies must be signed in ink.  The payee’s signature must be either witnessed by two disinterested parties or notarized.  All three copies must be signed by witnesses; one notarized copy will suffice.  The payee is to return all three copies to STO.  Upon receipt of the completed affidavits, the signatures are compared with the endorsement on the warrant as a final check before requesting repayment of the money from the applicable bank.  After receiving the funds from the bank, STO will authorize SCO to reissue the warrant.