Application Requirements
If you can answer YES to all of the following questions, you are eligible to apply for payment from the Victims of Corporate Fraud Compensation Fund (VCFCF):
- Do you have a final judgment, arbitration award, or criminal restitution order based on corporate fraud, misrepresentation, or deceit, made with intent to defraud?
- Is the judgment, arbitration award, or criminal restitution order from a California court or a federal court sitting to conduct its affairs within the State of California?
- Is the judgment, arbitration award, or criminal restitution order dated January 1, 2003, or thereafter?
- Will the application be delivered to the Secretary of State no more than 18 months after the judgment became final ("final" means the appeal period has expired)?
- Is at least one judgment debtor a corporation?
- Have you diligently pursued collection efforts on assets of all judgment debtors and any other person who may have been liable in the
transaction?
- If the judgment debtor has filed for bankruptcy, was the underlying judgment and debt declared nondischargeable?
Nondischargeable debts are debts that have not been dissolved or forgiven in a bankruptcy proceeding.
- Was the complaint upon which the underlying judgment is based prosecuted conscientiously and in good faith?
Conscientiously and in good faith means that no party potentially liable to you in the underlying transaction was intentionally and without good cause omitted from the complaint or arbitration proceeding, that no party named in the complaint who otherwise reasonably appeared capable of responding in damages was dismissed from the complaint or arbitration proceeding or dismissed from the complaint or arbitration proceeding intentionally and without good cause, and that you employed no other procedural means contrary to the diligent prosecution of the complaint or arbitration award for the purpose of seeking to qualify for the VCFCF.
Alternately, in the case of a criminal restitution order, have you pursued in a civil action all persons liable to you, other than the criminal defendant subject to the criminal restitution order?
Detailed information on application procedures can be found on the Application Instructions and Forms page.
