A New York man got the shock of a lifetime after waking up and finding out he had $89 million in his bank account.
Daniel Levene, a venture capitalist from Manhattan, was checking his finances one morning when he spotted a jaw-dropping deposit of $89,900,912 from E-Trade Financial Corporation, a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley.
“Did I just win the lottery?” he said to himself as he blinked at the screen around 10AM, The Sun reported.
After briefly entertaining the fantasy and joking to a friend: “Let’s go to Monaco, buy a yacht, and watch the Grand Prix” - Levene came back down to Earth.
“Obviously, I knew it was a mistake,” he told the New York Post.
Daniel Levene woke up to $89 million in his bank account. Credit: Patrick McMullan / Getty
"Please call me IMMEDIATELY"
Levene, a former bond trader at Goldman Sachs, wasted no time alerting E-Trade. He emailed a customer service representative and even included a screenshot of his suddenly supersized account.
“This is interesting - Please call me IMMEDIATELY - Did I just win the Lottery???” he wrote.
Still, it took the company more than 90 minutes to respond and retract the funds. E-Trade later issued a formal apology but provided no clear explanation as to why the deposit occurred.
A spokesperson for the company said they had not "processed any wire transfers anywhere in the neighborhood of what is being suggested," and added that in any such case, “no funds would have left the firm.”
They emphasized that E-Trade would “always work closely with that customer to resolve the issue”.
An E-Trade rep insisted that the broker “did not process any wire transfers anywhere in the neighborhood of what is being suggested". Credit: Wera Rodsawang / Getty
A momentary millionaire
For roughly an hour and a half, Levene lived every trader’s dream, even if it was just on paper.
While it’s unclear what caused the error, the incident has sparked comparisons to stories of mistaken fortunes, like the South Carolina woman who won over $300,000 after a store clerk’s innocent error.
According to PEOPLE, the woman went to a local Piggly Wiggly, where she bought a Palmetto Cash 5 ticket. When she looked at her purchase, she realized the lottery attendant had given her the wrong ticket.
The attendant at the store offered to change it, but the woman decided to keep the $2 ticket. She normally always plays the same numbers, but decided that day to try something new.
Her decision led to her winning a $303,000 jackpot. “If the clerk hadn’t made a mistake, I wouldn’t have won,” she said.