When Eidim Zomemim are found guilty who do they pay if it was a monetary case?

Question

When Eidim Zomemim are found guilty who do they pay if it was a monetary case? I can think of reasons to say it's the initial accused, the court, or the person who was said to have been owed the money....

Answer 1

This is an argument in Rishonim. The answer is not directly stated anywhere in the Talmud. The Sefer Yereim in Siman 178 says that it is comparable to the fifth added to Teruma, where it is paid to the Beis Din to distribute to whomever they want. However, he isn't certain about it. The other option is that it is paid to the initially accused.

The תועפות ראם - a commentary on the Sefer Yereim points to other opinions from the Radbaz Part 3 624 and the Mordechai on יאיר נתיב 3:49, as well as the Ohelei Yehuda who argues. According to that commentary, the Yereim would only make the argument for paying according to the view that the money the false witnesses have to pay is a fine. However according to the opinion in the Talmud that it is monetary compensation, it unambiguously goes to the initially accused.

Answer 2

The Ohr Somayach writes that logically one would have assumed they would pay the person who they testified was owed money. Meaning, do to them what they tried to do - they tried to make A owe money to B, so they should owe money to B.

However, the Ohr Somayach concludes that because of דרכיה דרכי נועם, the ways of the Torah are pleasant, it would offer the compensation to the accused because he is the one who "goes through" the trauma of being falsely accused.