A man in Texas has become the world’s first trillionaire after a bank error led to him being credited with $4tn (£2.5tn).
Reggie Theus, a restaurant manager at Newk’s Eatery in East Texas, noticed the error when he went to check his bank balance and saw it had increased substantially.
He told kltv.com: “I was definitely surprised when I looked in my account and saw that much money in there.
“I looked it up and there’s never been a trillionaire before. I may be the first ever, so that’s pretty neat to be able to say.
“I obviously wish it would have been real but it was great to see. I logged out and logged back in eight times just to see if it was still there, and every time it was still there.”
The bank, which did not want to be identified, made the mistake of crediting Theus’s account during an online banking update.
Speaking about what he would have done with the money, had the error gone unnoticed, Theus said he would have offered to wipe out the US national debt, which would have left him with $1tn to live on.
Now that Theus’s fortune has been taken back, the world’s richest person is once again Carlos Slim Helu & family, who have a fortune of a meagre $73bn.