A dad was left gobsmacked after a banking error saw £43.4billion deposited into his account - making him momentarily the 25th richest man in the world. Darren James only realised the staggering fortune was in his account after receiving a call from his stunned wife, the Daily Star reports.
The huge bank transfer meant the dad-of-two was worth over 10 times more than Virgin owner Richard Branson - for a few days at least. Darren, who lives in Louisiana in the US, told BR Proud: "It was crazy just to see what it looks like because I've never seen that many zeros in my life.
"I’m like where did that come from?" he said to FOX9 in a separate interview after incident June 2021. "And all we were thinking was who’s going to be knocking on our door…because we don’t know anybody with that type of money to begin with."
Darren admitted to what had happened and arranged for the money to go back to its rightful owner. He contacted his bank, Chase, but did admit that he fantasised what he could do with the money.
"We knew it wasn't ours," he said. "We didn’t earn it, so we couldn’t do anything with it." As a former law enforcement officer for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety, the now-real estate agent thought better of keeping the haul, knowing it would be considered theft.
When he alerted Chase, they immediately began work to get the funds back, but never said where the money came from, or how the error came about. The money was gone within a few days.
"It was a hold placed on it. It showed up on Saturday to make a deposit for our daughter. It stayed there Sunday, Monday and Tuesday it was gone."
The do-gooder said that if he ever found himself with that sort of money legitimately he would help others. "I would bless other people—to give people hope that there is positive in this world," he continued. "That’s what my biggest dream is."
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