A lucky dad has described the moment he became the world’s 25th richest man after a banking mishap briefly made him and his family into multi-billionaires.
Darren James said his gobsmacked wife called him to report that a staggering £43.4billion had appeared in the bank account.
The bizarre fluke left the dad-of-two, from Louisiana in the US, temporarily 10 times richer than Virgin boss Richard Branson.
Stunned Darren couldn’t believe his eyes when he checked his balance, the Daily Star reports.
"It was crazy just to see what it looks like because I've never seen that many zeros in my life," he told BR Proud.
"I’m like where did that come from?" he told FOX9 in a separate interview after the confusion in 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."
But rather than trying to spend his newfound riches on a mansion or a superyacht, Darren admitted to what had happened and arranged for the money to go back to its rightful owner.
Although he said he had fantasised about what he could do with all that money, he contacted his bank, Chase, to arrange its return to the rightful owner.
"We knew it wasn't ours," he said. "We didn’t earn it, so we couldn’t do anything with it."
Real estate agent Darren said he thought better of hanging on to the haul, adding his former job in law enforcement meant that he knew keeping the fortune would be considered theft.
When he alerted Chase, they immediately began work to get the funds back.
But the bank never revealed where the money came from, or how the error came about.
And a few days later, the riches had vanished again.
"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 added.
"That’s what my biggest dream is."
