If You Were a Billionaire for Five Hours
by Robert Frank
Thursday, April 1, 2010
provided by
AP
Photo/John Bazemore
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
indeed, and close to $89 billion.
Of course, the balance was a technical error by SunTrust Bank (NYSE:
STI - News), which quickly fixed the
problem. It also may have occurred in other accounts.
"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."
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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 bank said no.
The money was stripped out of his account by Saturday morning.
"It's all gone. I'm poor again," he said. "I was a billionaire for five
hours."
This kind of bank error happens frequently. But Mr. Fischer raises an
interesting question: What if, for five hours, you truly did have $89
billion?
What would you do with the money? The ground rules are that you would have to
give the money back — and whatever you bought or invested with it — after five
hours.
