A father-son 'finder' business charged with stealing $1.6 million from its own clients
Thomas Rodine, 56, of Carmichael, California, and his son Dustin Rodine, 28, of Citrus Heights, operated Rodco & Associates, a real asset and heir-location business that located people with assets sitting in the California State Controller's unclaimed property fund. From 2007 to 2009, the California Attorney General alleges, the pair forged documents to reroute their own clients' recovered funds to a network of post office boxes they controlled, and separately forged claim documents to collect money that was never disclosed to the clients who had hired them. Each was charged with three counts of embezzlement and one count of submitting fraudulent claims to the state Controller.
- Year
- 2010
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Charged (an allegation, not a conviction)
- Reported loss
- $1.7 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Unclaimed property scam
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-10
The facts, as recorded
- Rodco & Associates was a real, Carmichael-based asset and heir-location business that located individuals with assets in the Controller's unclaimed property fund and solicited them to use its recovery service.
- After clients signed agreements authorising Rodco & Associates to seek recovery, the Rodines allegedly forged documents to reroute the recovered assets to a network of post office boxes they controlled.
- They are also alleged to have forged separate claim documents to collect additional funds that were never disclosed to the clients who had hired them in the first place.
- Individual thefts are alleged to have ranged from $100 to more than $300,000, with $1.675 million in unauthorised fees and claims withheld in total.
- Each defendant was charged with three counts of embezzlement and one count of submitting fraudulent claims to the state Controller, each carrying a maximum of seven years and six months in prison.
- At the time of the Attorney General's announcement, more than $700,000 had been repaid to victims, with full restitution expected.
Why this case matters
Most of this scheme’s documented harm runs through identity theft against a government agency that never met the real owner. This case is the other half: a business its own clients actually hired, trusted with a signed agreement, and paid to recover money that was genuinely theirs.
A real business, not a cold call from nowhere
Rodco & Associates was not a shell or a burner operation. It was a registered asset and heir-location business that found people with real, verified assets in California’s unclaimed property fund and solicited them directly, the legitimate version of the same pitch dishonest “finders” use nationwide. Clients had reason to trust it precisely because the underlying service, locating property and handling the paperwork for a fee, is a real, lawful industry.
The forgery, twice over
The Attorney General’s office alleges two distinct forms of forgery rather than one. First, redirecting the recovery clients had signed up for, their own money, to post office boxes the Rodines controlled instead of to the clients themselves. Second, separately forging additional claim documents entirely, to collect funds the Controller held that the Rodines never told their clients existed at all.
The scale, person by person
Then-Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s office described individual thefts ranging from $100 to more than $300,000, a spread that shows the operation did not target a single large account; it processed whatever came through its own client list, small and large alike, over roughly two years.
The caveat
The facts above are drawn entirely from the California Attorney General’s charging announcement. A criminal complaint states allegations, not proven facts, and both defendants are presumed innocent unless and until a court finds otherwise. This page has not located a public record of either defendant’s final plea, trial outcome or sentence, and will be updated if one is found. As of 10 October 2026 no later outcome was found in the sources reviewed.
Sources
- Father and Son Charged with Stealing $1.6 Million in Unclaimed Funds from Dozens of Californians. California Office of the Attorney General. Accessed 2026-10-07. Supports: All facts in this case file: the defendants' names, ages and cities, the Rodco & Associates business, the 2007 to 2009 scheme dates, the forged documents and post office boxes, the per-victim loss range, the $1.675 million total, the charges and maximum sentence, the restitution figure, and the Attorney General's quote.