Lucky Discovery? Finding a lot of
extra money in our bank account is a dream for plenty of people. However,
this is something that does happen to certain people from time to time. You probably already
know the procedure. You’re not supposed to spend the money because obviously, it’s not yours. But
what happens if you DID decide to spend it? Is there actually a way to get away with it?
Robert and Tiffany Williams One Pennsylvania couple decided
to put that to the test! $120,000 dollars was mistakenly added to their BB&T Bank account
by the bank. Instead of telling the bank, they just decided to go on a shopping spree.
Bank Error The bank error happened back on May 31st in 2019.
One of BB&T’s customers in Georgia made a deposit of $120,000 dollars. Everything went
as usual. Except, the teller entered one number wrong on the account number. Instead of going
into the correct account, the money was routed into the Williams’ checking account. Robert and
Tiffany found out almost as soon as the error happened. And they went straight to spending!
Blow Money Fast They blew through the cash quickly.
They paid off bills, made repairs to their cars, and they even gave 15 grand to some
friends who needed money. They also bought more car problems when they bought a new SUV,
two four-wheelers, a camper, AND a car trailer! Obviously the big problem for
them is that the money isn’t theirs. They had to know they had to pay it back at one point right?
When the original customer finally noticed that the deposit hadn’t hit their checking
account a few days later, they contacted the bank to ask about the missing deposit.
That’s when investigators discovered the funds had gone into the Williams’ account.
Three weeks later, on June 21st of 2019,
the bank finally was able to get in touch with Tiffany Williams. She told
bank officials that they had already spent all the money! Yes, they had spent over 120 grand
in 3 weeks! They racked up overdraft fees from the bank that roughly totaled $107,000!
But Tiffany DID make promises that she and Robert would agree to a repayment plan.
How much did they have in their checking account before the teller’s error?
$1,121 dollars. Doesn’t this sound kind of like when Harry and Lloyd put the slips of
IOUs in the suitcase and promised to pay it all back in Dumb and Dumber?
So why did the Williams even try to spend the money? Why did they try to run this scam? Both
Tiffany and Robert told investigators that they knew the money didn’t belong to either of them.
Robert said quote, “All I’m going to say is we took some bad legal advice from some people, and
it probably wasn’t the best thing in the end”. Even if someone gave them bad advice, they still
have to make a choice and act on it! They still chose to spend money that they knew wasn’t theirs.
They both were arrested and then released on a bail of $25,000 thousand dollars each.
Steven Fields As another quick example,
back in 2014, Steven Fields had the same experience when 31 thousand dollars was
accidentally deposited into his bank account. As soon as he found that money in his account,
he withdrew 20 grand in cash and spent around 5 grand on his debit card. But when the owner of
the money started looking for his missing money, the bank put everything together.
Eventually they figured out that the money was deposited by the teller into the bank account
of the wrong Steven Fields. He spent most of the money on a BMW and blew through 80% of the deposit
in 10 days! Obviously he was caught. He ended up sentenced to 10 years of probation,
AND he had to pay back all the money he spent.
Accidental Deposits So has anyone gotten away with money accidentally
deposited into their bank account? Probably. But it’s definitely extremely rare. However, it’s a
different story when it comes to corporations. When they accidentally make the wrong payment
or deposit to another business, the rules are different! We’ll get into that later in the video.
For the average person, it’s extremely hard, if not impossible to get away with discovered money.
If someone HAS gotten away with keeping money they found in their bank account,
what most likely happens is someone just withdraws the cash and disappears. This
is something that was much easier to do back before the mainstream internet. But now in the
digital age, it’s just not worth it. If someone decides to cash out any accidental deposits,
they’d basically have to make up a completely brand new identity with a brand new life.
No Entitlement If someone ever finds unexpected money
in their bank account, there’s no point to even asking the question. The answer is simply just
no. They’re definitely not entitled to keep the money. The money isn't theirs unless they’re the
intended recipient. That's because of a common law doctrine known as "unjust enrichment". Basically
anyone who gets money wired by mistake is required to return the money to the sender.
All the cases where people who’ve received erroneous deposits and then
spent any amount of the money found themselves facing criminal charges.
Criminal charges vary by state, but the charge basically is theft.
So who's responsible for replacing the money being put in the wrong account? The bank is the
responsible party. They’re obligated to replace any money that was deposited into the wrong
account. So if this ever happens to you, you don’t need to worry much. Your bank will credit your
account when they discover the mistake. If the money was already spent by someone, you'd still
be credited and the person who spent the money will ultimately have to pay it back to the bank.
Under the Radar? The truth is,
any type of financial crime will eventually be discovered at one point or another.
If it’s a big accidental deposit made by the average person, they’re going to tell the bank
immediately. If it’s a big business with an accidental deposit into the wrong accounts,
it’ll still be discovered through audits, even if it’s years later. It’s just a matter
of time. Once the error is discovered, the transaction will simply be reversed.
Earning Interest? What if you don’t plan
on spending money you found? Before someone discovers missing money, you get the idea
of moving the money into some sort of brokerage or stock account to try to earn some dividends.
Even if you notify your financial institution about an erroneous deposit,
you can’t make money off the money sitting in your account. Apparently doing so can
technically still count as theft! But the rules are different for big business!
Citibank Error So how come rules
aren’t the same for corporations? Here’s one of the best examples. Back in 2020, Citibank made
one of the biggest financial errors in history! Citibank was acting as a loan agent to Revlon,
the cosmetics company. Citibank had meant to send about $7.8 million dollars in interest payments
to Revlon's assortment of lenders. However, Citibank accidentally wired over 100 times that
amount! In total, Citibank accidentally sent $893 MILLION dollars to a bunch of Revlon's lenders!
Some lenders did return the money, but other lenders didn’t. Citibank filed a lawsuit in
August of 2020 after still not getting $500 million dollars from 10 investment firms after
the accidental transfer. And most of the time, citibank would be able to get their money back.
But not this time. In February of 2021, a US District Court Judge ruled that Citibank won't
be allowed to recover the almost half a billion dollars it accidentally wired!
New York Exception This is because of an exception that applied
in Citigroup's case under a New York law. This law was brought forward by precedent in a 1991 case
where New York's Court of Appeals ruled that if a third party mistakenly sends money to a creditor,
the creditor can keep the funds. It’s known as the quote, "discharge-for-value-defense."
If the beneficiary is entitled to the money and didn’t know it was accidentally wired,
they can keep it. The Revlon lenders that didn’t return the money said that they believed Citibank
was wiring prepayments for a loan. After all, the money accidentally wired was the exact amount to
the penny that Citibank owed them, even though the loan wasn't set to mature for quite some time.
Citibank even made the argument that virtually no company would ever make such huge prepayments.
They argued that many companies are still dealing with the financial impact caused by the pandemic.
They specifically made the case that Revlon was too distressed of a company
to ever make such payments. But the judge still ruled that the lenders
were justified in keeping the payments and believing the payments were intentional!
So who really made out in this case? Only Revlon!
Here’s what’s next!