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Dormant Bank Accounts

Question:

An accountant was searching for dormant accounts of shareholders at a publicly traded company. He came across an account belonging to an Israeli bank that is worth  $11 million. He would like to charge the bank two hundred thousand dollars in order to retrieve the account. May he do so, or perhaps since he is in effect returning lost property, he may only charge the bank the amount he lost in working on this account which comes to about $200?

Answer:

It is permitted to charge the higher amount in this case. It seems from your question that the situation is such that once he has informed the bank of the existence of the account, and they nonetheless make no effort to recover the funds, there is no longer a mitzvoh of hashoas aveidoh.  In that case he may charge whatever he wants for his services.

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