Friday, April 2, 2010

If You Were a Billionaire for Five Hours

When Paul Fischer checked his bank account Friday night, he had a happy surprise. His balance had exploded to $88,888,888,888.88. A very lucky number. You say, 'Eighty-eight billion, what can I do with that?'" said Mr. Fischer, who owns a jewelry concessionaire for Florida theme parks. "Maybe a handful of us could have brought down SunTrust Bank." Mr. Fischer had other ideas as well. Before the problem was fixed, he asked a SunTrust rep if he could move the money to an interest-bearing account until it was reclaimed and donate the interest to charity. Total interest: more than $7.3 million.The money was stripped out of his account by Saturday morning.

I think it's really important to prevent mistakes like these. The banks should try to be more careful about these kind of errors. Not only is it disappointing for the man, but imagine if the money had fallen into the wrong hands. With a billion dollars even in just a few hours, he could have done a LOT. but wow.. if I had a million dollars... i don't even know where to start!! what a sad and disappointing day for Mr. Fischer..

2 comments:

SethXY said...

I would say that this was not a sad day for Mr. Fischer because he honestly could have done ANYTHING with that cash but instead he did something philanthropic and that is truly commendable. It gives me hope that people have self restraint even in the face of some real dolla dolla bills. Props to Mr. Fischer and he sets an example that any sane man would have difficulty following.

ps. my word verification for this comment is "burryish." I wonder if I can use this against Tim Co in our scrabble game...

Yvonne Lee said...

I'm extremely glad that the money was given to Mr. Fischer. If the money was given to someone who was a part of a gang that'd be very dangerous. I agree with Katrina that the banks need to be careful with these kinds of errors. People can do many dangerous things with that kind of money such as purchasing weapons or drugs.