For ninety minutes, this guy was a billionaire without realizing it. He was about 200 times richer than Elon Musk
Imagine being about 200 times richer than Elon Musk. I have enough money to buy Apple 23 times over. That's what happened in half an hour to an anonymous American citizen who received $81 billion from Citigroup. The biggest billionaire in history, even though he didn't know it.
This week, news broke that Citigroup was supposed to pay one of its clients $280, but instead paid him... $81 billion.
Within an hour and a half, this person had enough money to buy all the shares of the world's 20 richest companies, and he still had more money left.
- The man who took $81 billion from his bank
For comparison, the world's richest person, Elon Musk, has only $350 billion, or $0.35 trillion. So this Citigroup client was about 231 times richer than Elon Musk.
The news was not only made headlines because of the amount, but also because it was the latest in a long list of incomprehensible mistakes made by Citigroup, according to CNBC.
Two different bank employees approved the transaction, and the transfer remained active for 90 minutes until it was discovered. The money never left the bank, which is impossible because no one has that amount, so it was what experts call a “near miss.”
The problem is that Citigroup has had at least 10 “near misses” in 2024 and 13 in 2023. That’s a mistake no bank can afford.
Two different bank employees approved the transaction, and the transfer remained active for 90 minutes until it was discovered. The money never left the bank, which is impossible because no one has that amount, so it was what experts call a “near miss.”
The problem is that Citigroup has had at least 10 “near misses” in 2024 and 13 in 2023. That’s a mistake no bank can afford.
In short, this bank gave $81 billion to one of its clients, who knew nothing about it for the entire 90 minutes it took. If this had happened to me, I probably would have ended up in the hospital with a heart attack...