[Harvey Specter]

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."

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.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/109237/if-you-were-billionaire-for-five-hours.

[skyxx]

The Bank must be Nigerian. ;)

[StylinRed]

some bank exec laundered money into the wrong account

[fishing666]

88billion shit i can buy a country with that

[rawr]

if i knew i had to return the 88billion after 5 hours, i would make investment into stocks, lol

[trip]

i checked my account today

i had -$9.xx in it

fml :(

[124Y]

The higher you climb, the harder you fall. If I were the guy, I would sue the bank for causing psychological trauma.

[trip]

^ theres no way ur gonna win against bankers

[Ronin]

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

What the fuck...? What could you do with it if you have to give it all back? That seriously limits your options.

I'd buy $89 billion dollars worth of diamonds and then pull a Scrooge McDuck.

[gearshifter]

Pretty sure they money came from chinese people ;D

[Ch28]

What the fuck...? What could you do with it if you have to give it all back? That seriously limits your options.

I'd buy $89 billion dollars worth of diamonds and then pull a Scrooge McDuck.

buy stocks

flip stocks

return money

??

profit

[Ronin]

Any stock that fluctuates enough to make a profit in five hours is probably rather risky and you could lose it all.

...not to mention buying $88 billion in stock is going to have a significant effect on the market and you could be screwed when you try to sell.

Someone is going to travel to...I don't know...Russia...and buy $88 billion dollars worth of mail order brides and have the best 5 hours in the history of man.

[TheKingdom2000]

buy stocks

flip stocks

return money

??

profit

so for someone with no experience in the stock market... you are going to day trade... lol you would lose all the money and owe up the asssssssssss

[Marco911]

Get the credit rating agencies to do a credit check on me.

[stewie]

withdraw money asap

run my ass to mexico

never be seen again

live like a king

[InvisibleSoul]

withdraw money asap

run my ass to mexico

never be seen again

live like a king
I guess you'd be like that New Zealand couple.

http://consumerist.com/2009/05/new-zealand-bank-error-fugitives-foiled-by-facebook-status-update.html

I'm not sure what the eventual outcome of that was.

[tamazoid]

Holy! On paper, he was the richest man in the world for 5 hours!

[hotjoint]

wow

[tiger_handheld]

i'd buy a blue chip stock that has been going up - even if it goes up .01 - i'll be ok :) ..

[underscore]

Any stock that fluctuates enough to make a profit in five hours is probably rather risky and you could lose it all.

...not to mention buying $88 billion in stock is going to have a significant effect on the market and you could be screwed when you try to sell.

Someone is going to travel to...I don't know...Russia...and buy $88 billion dollars worth of mail order brides and have the best 5 hours in the history of man.

Well first, you spread it out. Not many companies would even have $88 billion of stock up anyways. Second, you get into things that will move slightly but are considered fairly safe, as with such large amounts of money you won't need them to move much to make quite a profit. Even if you only gain 0.1% you've just made $88 million, which or more than enough to retire on. Hell, if you gained 0.01% and made $8.8 million you could retire easily.

[JesseBlue]

funny that the bank actually had 88 billion....or it is what it is, a glitch...

[AzNightmare]

LOL!! wow.. That's enough to be #1 on the Forbes list.

[optiblue]

I would withdraw as much as I could haha

[Kim Jong Un]

OMG HAX!

[no_clue]

I just want to inform everyone not to be a retard if the bank makes a mistake and deposits more money into your account. If you use that extra money and make it rain at a club or holt renfrew, they will hunt you down with no mercy. First they will deduct the error, which will put you in the red. Then they will charge overdraft and interest fee. If they are really mean they can also charge you with theft if you spend it.

As for that credit check, I think every bank will pound on your door for your business if you had 88 billion lol

[underscore]

^ thats why you do shit like I said, where you safely use it to get you money, then give it back when they realize they fucked up

[no_clue]

well that doesn't really work, as it takes approximately 2-3 days for the money to transfer to a trading account. Banks also check the amount transferred especially for an amount that big. It's nice to dream though :)

however, If I was a mainland chinese person... Bank wire and never return to Canada

[underscore]

:'( damnit there goes my plan.

[hchang]

Reminds me of Eagle Eye

[JSALES]

damn

[yellowpower]

Imagine how many cars you could buy with that... jizzz

[CP.AR]

maybe that's how Hyde got his supercars?

[Ronin]

LOL it's not hard to think about it when you just get to keep $88 billion, guys...but you only get to keep it for 5 hours.

Heck, if it wasn't 5 hours, I'd hold a "REVscene HOOKERS AND BLOW MEET"

[Vansterdam]

shit its like swordfish how the guy set the money to move around and shit!

[geryfung]

I wouldn't do anything with it. Why waste your time and efforts investing it if the bank's gonna take it all back anyways.

[Kaito1412]

lol that bank pulled a chinese new years trick

[SpartanAir]

So what would happen if you saw you had $88 billion, and immediately transferred a portion or all of it to an offshore or swiss bank account? Assuming you had one already set up and in use, what could they do? You could just say "sorry, but the money's gone." They would be fucked, and you would be retired.

[metal]

^Yeah cus it'd be that easy, and they'd just leave you alone after that.

[Kim Jong Un]

So what would happen if you saw you had $88 billion, and immediately transferred a portion or all of it to an offshore or swiss bank account? Assuming you had one already set up and in use, what could they do? You could just say "sorry, but the money's gone." They would be fucked, and you would be retired.
Dude what are you smoking? 88 million man they're not gonna leave you alone until you pay it back.
Posted via RS Mobile (http://www.revscene.net/forums/announcement.php?a=228)

[ikki]

it's good to get saving interest or flip them in trading... if you can use those money for 5 hrs

[alphabet]

1. Do nothing
2. Find money
3. ???
4. Profit!