Waking up to find billions in your bank account might be the stuff of dreams, however for one man, this heavenly scenario actually came true. A banking glitch made a family multi-billionaires when they saw their bank balance skyrocket by £43.4billion.
The shock $50bn deposit made one temporarily thrilled dad the 25th richest man in the world. Darren James became aware of his bulging bank balance when told by his equally stunned wife who could not quite believe what she was seeing.
As reported by Daily Star, the dad-of-two from Louisiana in the United States, was for a short time, worth over 10 times more than Virgin boss Richard Branson. The astounded dad 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 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."
The honest dad contacted his bank and arranged for the money to go back to its rightful owner. However he did admit that he fantisised 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 Bank, they immediately began work to get the funds back.
The bank never divulged where the money came from, or how the error came about. Darren's billions disappeared in just a few days, making him one of the world's shortest-duration billionaires.
Darren said: "It showed up on Saturday, stayed there Sunday and Monday. By Tuesday it was gone."
He 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, that’s what my biggest dream is."
