Man Who Became Millionaire Due To Bank Glitch Has Been Jailed For Theft

Jul 07, 2021 by apost team

A man became a millionaire overnight due to a banking glitch and is now being sentenced to jail for theft. On May 31, 2020, Roman Yurkov, from Tula, Russia found that 95.2 million rubles, which is $1.3 million, had been deposited into his account. It turns out there was a technical malfunction during an update of his bank's mobile app that made the sum appear in Yurkov’s account.

The man claimed that he reached out to his bank and was assured that everything was fine with his account. With this confirmation, Yurkov went on a spending spree and made 220 separate transactions between May 31, and June 1, 2020. Prosecutors later alleged that Yurkov had spent at his own discretion and purchased four apartments, an iPhone, a BMW and a Mercedes. 

Despite claiming that he had been in constant contact with the bank, the institution said they didn’t realize the error had occurred until November 2020 when they were assembling their quarterly report. Yurkov’s account was seized in December with 39 million rubles ($540,000) remaining. 

Yurkov’s hearing was in June 2021 and the Sovetskiy District Court found him guilty of theft from a bank account committed on a large scale and of taking advantage of an error in the bank's software. He has been sentenced to six years in prison. However, Yurkov still claims he is innocent.  

Most people in Yurkov’s position would have realized that there was a glitch or error and likely would not have spent the money. In this situation, Yurkov saw a stroke of luck, and he maintains that he believed the money was a deposit from his bookmaker.

Newsweek reports Yurkov said, "I bought everything I wanted. Well, only I didn't buy the plane.” He described the experience as being "like in the movies." Unfortunately, there was no fairytale ending for Yurkov in this story. 

Yurkov’s experience is reminiscent of another bank error that occurred in Florida in June 2021. Julia Yonkowski went to withdraw money from her bank account at an ATM and her account balance read that she had nearly a billion dollars.

In this story, the recipient was not happy about the bank error. “Oh my God, I was horrified. I know most people would think they won the lottery but I was horrified,” Yonkowski told WFLA. 

Initially, Yonkowski thought she had less than $20 in her account. “When I put in for the $20, the machine came back and said we’ll give you the $20 but that’ll cause an overdraft and you will be charged and I said, ‘Oh just forget it,'” she explained. However, when she saw the account balance it said there was $999,985,855.94.

Luckily, Yonkowski knew not to withdraw any of the money. “I know I’ve read stories about people that took the money or took out money, and then they had to repay it and I wouldn’t do that anyway because it’s not my money,” she said to WFLA. The bank has implied the amount was actually a negative balance and the woman’s account was being blocked. The issue has since been resolved and there was no legal action taken against Yonkowski.

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Do you think it is fair that Yurkov is being sentenced to prison? What would you do if you found a million dollars deposited into your account? Let us know and send this on to your friends and family.