Woman, 21, arrested after $4.6m was wrongly transferred into her bank account

[Zogarth]

I would first ask a lawyer friend of mine if I could keep it, if not I would contact my bank and ask that the hell it was about, and pay the money back. No reason to take the risk of jail.

[Breccia]

If you woke up with four million dollars unexpectedly in your bank account, why would your first thought be "nobody will ever know they made a mistake and track the money to my account"? If someone drops $40 by accident, they probably won't hunt you down. For $4 million, they will find you. Especially since it was a bank transfer and those things always leave an electronic trail. Hell my credit union stores every deposit/withdraw I've made for a year, and they're the size of a gas station.

[willtron]

She stole nothing. Its not her duty to correct the mistakes done by others and people arent legally required to manage their funds.

What are they gonna charge her with anyway? Spending money from her own bank account? Shell probably lose whats left but any half decent lawyer could get those charges cleared.

I don't even know where to begin.

[Deleted]

4.6M? I would like to say I would do the right thing and report it but its pretty tempting just to take the cash and flee the country.

I would have just spent it and said that I dont keep track of my money. Good luck disproving it. Fleeing the country, like some have pointed out kinda proves that you did know it wasnt your money.

[Kolvarg]

Notify the bank of course, or else shit like this happens. Sucks for her but millions just suddenly showing up in your back account is an obvious mistake, it's not a free pass to go blow all the money.

Then again it took them 4 years to notice?

Sure, it's pretty clear it's not normal, and pretty shitty/unresponsable to just spend it no questions asked, but legally speaking it's hard to blame her imo, it's her account and the mistake of transfering the money to the account was not hers.

I remember when I was a kid a bank employee did a mistake and wrongfully transfered a hefty sum into my parent's account. They immediately contacted my parents asking for their permission to undo the mistake and transfer the money to the intended account - if my parents didn't allow them, the money would be theirs legally (and the employee would likely have to pay for his mistake from his pocket, and/or get fired).

Of course it's different from country to country, and it was a much smaller ammount of money, but the basic principle holds: If I drop a bunch of 500€ bills into your bag, are you legally obligated to return it to me? Should you be treated as a criminal if 4 years later I start saying you "stole" my money because you didn't return it?

[Wildtree]

I'd make a huge withdrawal and disappear

Or report it to the bank.

One of the two.

The former is very difficult.
Pretty much every country has limitations as to how much money you can have when you leave/enter.
You have to make some pretty smart preparations to funnel the money out of the country separately. It's not impossible, but the more money it is, the more difficult and time consuming it is.

[willtron]

Meh, Governments mistake, They deserve the blame. Gotta love no accountability. Here in Canada if the government gives you too much money on a tax return or something along those lines and its on a government issue check, its yours but you have to pay it back in small payments.

Yeah, no accountability for spending a random 3.3 million that was dropped into her account by mistake. Totally not her fault. She slipped and her card fell into the machine.

[Socialhealer]

I would argue that as long as she didn't do anything fraudulently to get the money she received, that money is hers.

and the law would laugh at you for such stupidity.

[Gabronthe]

Legally speaking for the purposes of the IRS, you only legally own money you have deposited into your bank, or you have approved the transaction of. Any other case is theft and fraud. This woman spent money she did not own into her bank and tried to flee with it. She can and should be held legally responsible.

[Hydrofluoric]

Seems strange that someone can charged for stealing even though the bank transferred the money to their account, the bank should be held accountable for their mistake.

But spending money that you acknowledge as not your own is a dick move.

[Gheld]

Uhoh. Upon further reading they didn't give her 4.6 million dollars. They accidentally extended her credit line to 4.6 million dollars. This isn't an issue of theft. It's a consumer credit issue.

[Dug]

Then again it took them 4 years to notice?

Sure, it's pretty clear it's not normal, and pretty shitty/unresponsable to just spend it no questions asked, but legally speaking it's hard to blame her imo, it's her account and the mistake of transfering the money to the account was not hers.

I remember when I was a kid a bank employee did a mistake and wrongfully transfered a hefty sum into my parent's account. They immediately contacted my parents asking for their permission to undo the mistake and transfer the money to the intended account - if my parents didn't allow them, the money would be theirs legally (and the employee would likely have to pay for his mistake from his pocket, and/or get fired).

Of course it's different from country to country, and it was a much smaller ammount of money, but the basic principle holds: If I drop a bunch of 500€ bills into your bag, are you legally obligated to return it to me? Should you be treated as a criminal if 4 years later I start saying you "stole" my money because you didn't return it?

Yeah that's why I say its a sucky situation. I want to hold her accountable but really but bank is also at fault for not even catching such a giant mistake. Really though she needed to take the initiative and just notify them

[endersblade]

The money was transferred to the account FOUR YEARS ago?

Bank fucked up, she gets punished.

If that kinda money ended up in my account, I'd sit on it for a while. If nothing happens, you better fucking believe I'd spend it. Not my fucking fault some moron put it there.

[Socialhealer]

I would have just spent it and said that I dont keep track of my money. Good luck disproving it. Fleeing the country, like some have pointed out kinda proves that you did know it wasnt your money.

and again the law would laugh at you because you don't randomly spend 3.3m $ when you know you don't have anywhere near that sum of money, and a sudden 4.6m $ from nowhere? ignorance doesn't work the law will get you.

[Deleted]

I don't understand this case

An overdraft is not free money; it's a loan

If she goes free, is she going to pay the overdraft back?

[willtron]

I would have just spent it and said that I dont keep track of my money. Good luck disproving it. Fleeing the country, like some have pointed out kinda proves that you did know it wasnt your money.

You don't keep track, but your bank sure does. It's going to flag on their system if you suddenly start splurging, then they'll look into how much you have.

[Gheld]

Seems strange that someone can charged for stealing even though the bank transferred the money to their account, the bank should be held accountable for their mistake.

But spending money that you acknowledge as not your own is a dick move.

The bank didn't transfer any money. They extended her line of credit by mistake.

[Deleted]

I don't even know where to begin.

Begin with what? Say right now, I dont really check my balance for months sometimes. If the bank mistakenly gave me $3000, I would probably have no idea and its not my problem either. How would 3mil be any different? There are no laws that makes it mandatory for people to know how much money they have on their bank accounts.

[Gheld]

I don't understand this case

An overdraft is not free money; it's a loan

If she goes free, is she going to pay the overdraft back?

It's unsecured debt. So she should be able to discharge it in bankruptcy.

[Gib Lover]

Uhoh. Upon further reading they didn't give her 4.6 million dollars. They accidentally extended her credit line to 4.6 million dollars. This isn't an issue of theft. It's a consumer credit issue.

Yeah, in the article the Magistrate says she didn't exactly break the law, but she will need to pay back the millions she spent.

It's unsecured debt. So she should be able to discharge it in bankruptcy.

ah true.