unilad homepage
  • News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Man who became richest person in the world for two minutes with $92,233,720,368,547,800

Home> News> Money

Published 15:16 13 Sep 2024 GMT+1

Man who became richest person in the world for two minutes with $92,233,720,368,547,800

Chris Reynolds had big plans for the money before it was all taken from him

Emily Brown

Emily Brown

google discoverFollow us on Google Discover

What would you do if you checked your banking app one day and spotted $92,233,720,368,547,800 just sitting there?

Admittedly it's hard to imagine what that would even look like - can that many numbers even fit on one screen?

I don't know, but one man who would is Chris Reynolds, who briefly held the title of the richest person in the world before the money suddenly disappeared again.

Advert

The bizarre situation unfolded in July 2013, when Reynolds opened up his Paypal account and was baffled to see a 17-figure sum sitting in his account, on top of the money that he expected to see in there.

The balance meant that Reynolds had officially overtaken Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim as the richest person in the world at the time, when Slim had a net worth of $67 billion.

Before the unexpected credit appeared in his account, Reynolds said the most he had ever made on PayPal was ‘a little over $1,000’, which he'd received by selling a set of vintage BMW tyres on eBay.

The credit made him the only quadrillionaire at the time (PayPal/Chris Reynolds)
The credit made him the only quadrillionaire at the time (PayPal/Chris Reynolds)

Speaking about his sudden wealth in an interview with the Philadelphia Daily News, Reynolds said that the huge sum made him feel ‘like a million bucks’.

"At first I thought that I owed quadrillions,” he said. "It was quite a big surprise."

If he'd been able to keep the money, Reynolds had big plans to ‘pay the national debt down’ and then 'buy the Phillies', referring to the Philadelphia baseball team.

Only if he could 'get a great price' for the team, that is.

Unfortunately, however, Reynolds' sudden wealth was stripped away almost as quickly as it arrived, when PayPal realized what had happened and apologized to Reynolds for the 'inconvenience'.

Chris Reynolds wasn't rich for long, sadly (NBC)
Chris Reynolds wasn't rich for long, sadly (NBC)

I'm not sure I'd call becoming the richest person in the world an 'inconvenience', but alright.

In a statement, the company said: "This is obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr. Reynolds understood this was the case.”

Paypal withdrew the money from Reynolds' account, but it did offer to donate an undisclosed amount of money to a charity of Reynolds’ choice.

"We think it's inspiring that he decided to use this occurrence to donate to a cause he believes in," Paypal added.

"And we hope to honor this spirit by donating to a cause of his choice – we've reached out to him to make this offer and to let him know we are grateful that he's a customer!"

Featured Image Credit: NBC/PayPal/Chris Reynolds

Topics: Money, News, US News, World News

Emily Brown
Emily Brown

Emily Brown is UNILAD Editorial Lead at LADbible Group. She first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route - before graduating with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University. Emily joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features. She went on to become Community Desk Lead, commissioning and writing human interest stories from across the globe, before moving to the role of Editorial Lead. Emily now works alongside the UNILAD Editor to ensure the page delivers accurate, interesting and high quality content.

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

an hour ago
3 hours ago
  • Brook Mitchell / AFP via Getty Images
    an hour ago

    Dead body held in plane galley for 13 hours during flight as passengers describe 'foul smell'

    The British Airways flight was headed from Hong Kong to London, UK

    News
  • Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty Images
    an hour ago

    Zara Larsson claims she lost $3 million brand deal over her abortion joke

    Zara Larsson has also pushed back against the backlash she received

    Celebrity
  • Getty Stock Images
    an hour ago

    FBI reveals three signs your smart device has been secretly hacked

    We use many devices in our homes, and some are open to exploitation

    Technology
  • WXIX
    3 hours ago

    Employer ordered to pay $22.5 million for denying woman's work-from-home request leading to newborn's death

    Jurors found that the company's refusal to allow her to work from home contributed to the death of her infant daughter

    News
  • Man who became richest person in world for two minutes explained what he would've done with $92 quadrillion
  • Elon Musk is officially the world’s richest person again
  • Second richest woman in the world is worth $95,000,000,000 and you've probably never even heard of her
  • Former child star who appeared in cult classic movie grew up to become one of the richest actors in the world