Commerce Bank Accidentally Gives You $5 Million
Commerce Bank accidentally deposited $5 million into Benjamin Lovell's account. He spent $2 million of it and now he's being charged with grand larceny.
Benjamin Lovell was arraigned Tuesday on grand larceny charges. The 48-year-old salesman said he tried to tell officials at Commerce Bank in December that he did not have a $5 million account.As much as this sucks, if your bank deposits someone else's money in your account... don't spend it. Really. It's not yours.Lovell said he was told it was his and he could withdraw the money.
Prosecutors said the bank -- which advertises itself as America's Most Convenient Bank -- confused Lovell with a Benjamin Lovell who works for a property management company.
The lesser-funded Lovell gave away some of the withdrawn money and blew some of it on gifts, but lost much of it on bad investments, prosecutors said.
NYC Bank Lets Wrong Man Withdraw $2M [SFGate] (Thanks, John!)
(Photo:piffy)
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he should have put it in his savings account.
Well, if they told him "no its yours, spend it" he MIGHT have a case. But, in all likelyhood, he's screwed.
Temptation is a bitch I suppose. He should have done the honest thing right off, but I definitely understand how one could be swayed into going on a spending spree.
which advertises itself as America's Most Convenient Bank
Grand larceny is not, however, convenient.
Sucks. No one would ever confuse my last name with another one. There aren't any. I've checked.
If the temptation was just too much for him and he just HAD to spend it the smart thing to have done would have been to have taken ALL the money and left the country, changed his name and started a new life! Preferrably somewhere without an extradition treaty with the US!
But a guy who just spends PART of the money then sticks around wating to be arrested for spending said money that was not his probably isn't too smart
At that point I'd just have said "I'd like to make a withdrawal."
I don't know of any bank who wouldn't look into it when you say, "it's not my money." I'm a Commerce Customer (personal and business accounts), and I'm sure they would notice 5 Mill missing in less then a day (they catch my mis-calculated deposit slips in less then 6 hours for $20 or less!). This is a case of BAD CONSUMER!
@shan6: No you know whats not convenient... the fact that in order to deposit a check at any bank OTHER than the one in your area, you need that specific area's deposit slip. And in order to fix this you have to close the account and open it where your depositing from.
My fiance has this issue since she moved south to where I live and its god damned annoying. She has to go up to the counter, ASK for the north jersey slips, then fill it out and get back in line to deposit a check because they have a north jersey, central jersey, and south jersey split. And in order to fix it, they told her she had to close her account and open it by us, meaning all her checks and card would be useless since we would have to get new ones.
No other bank I know in the 21st century is so stupidly managed. The only reason she hasnt pulled her money yet is she cant be bothered to go through the effort yet.
This is my bank, why can't they do this to me?? I agree with Skyblue if it were me I would be on the first flight to Brazil or something. First class all the way.
@SkyeBlue: Seriously. $5 Million is more than enough to last the rest of your life. He could have transferred that money to an offshore account, then distributed through various other accounts to make it more difficult to track. Then disappear.
By the way, who keeps $5 mil in one account? Spread that stuff out to maximize your FDIC insurance coverage in case something like this happens.
This was on fast money last night, and they said he went through 3 levels of management that said it's yours now, go ahead and spend it.
I heard this story on NPR this morning. According to their coverage, when he discovered the gigantic deposit, he went to the bank and tried to get them to correct the error, but the bank did not believe him. They specifically told him it was his money. IF (and it's a big IF) he can document that fact, I say he's got a case. I do believe the bank should get to recover what they can($3 million still left?) but should not be able to press charges for their own incompetence! If I was that sloppy at work, there'd be a price to pay - my job. Corporations have more "rights" than We The People these days.
My credit union accidentally deposited $2K into my account years ago. They mailed me a deposit slip and I about fell over. IIRC, they almost immediately caught the mistake.
I remember an old bag from the credit union telling me on the phone she couldn't believe I kept the money.
Actually, your summary is wrong.
The bank actually allowed the guy to withdraw money from SOMEONE else's account because they thought he was the other guy (same name). Interestingly, your quote was correct.
They didn't deposit the money into his account, he actually withdrew it, knowing it was an error, and then spent it.
There's no such thing as free money. He had to know they'd figure it out eventually. Likely when the other gentleman realized his life savings was drained.
@K-Bo: I don't think they really have a case against him if that is true, at some point you have to stop and think "What the hell" right?
Lost most of it on bad investments?
TWO MILLION DOLLARS IN TWO MONTHS????
@Falconfire: How about:
A. Depositing in the ATM? Then you just have to fill out the envelope.
B. Goto the drive-through. No getting back in line. Just have them send the correct slip through the tube.
C. Grab an whole mess of the slips you need, and keep them in your car. I keep a whole bunch of my Sovereign ATM envelopes in my car, and can just whip one out and make a deposit, even if the bank is out of them.
Just some thoughts.
The FDIC wouldn't cover this, right? Don't they only cover deposits up to a certain amount of money that's not $5 million?
@shan6: I agree, but I've heard 3 very different stories about what he ended up doing with the money, and how much is left, so its hard to tell whats really going on with the whole fiasco.
FDIC covers up to $100,000 per customer per bank.
Who can't hide with $5,000,000 and a two month head start?
Also, why would he have kept the money in Commerce Bank. It clearly was not secure there.
"Investment" is just another way of saying "hookers and blow."
@loquaciousmusic: this isn't an fdic issue - the bank's bonding agent would be responsible for recovering the lost money.
the fact that a good portion of this money is unrecoverable means a few folks are definitely going to lose their jobs - & commerce bank's bond premium is going to skyrocket.
I'm pretty sure FDIC only covers deposits in case of bank insolvency and closure. You'd think the answer would be found by simply going to the FDIC website, but looking at it, it looks like it'd take hours of poking around and interpreting crap to find out for sure. :(
Fark Dumbass tag coming in 5...4...3...2...
He may not have committed a crime against the bank itself, especially if they insisted it was his account, but he definitely committed a crime against Benjamin Lovell. If I were Benjamin I would consider taking action against the bank too.
Honestly, why wouldn't they believe this guy when he said that it wasn't his account? Did they think he just forgot he had 5 million dollars?
Wow this is so much better than what Wachovia accidentally does, which is call the swat team on you for trying to make a deposit ->
[www.wltx.com]
@Falconfire: I have the same problem.
I moved from North Jersey to Central Jersey, and every time I go to Commerce, I need to ask for a North Jersey Deposit slip. If I happen to have one already, and don't mention it is North Jersey, it takes several tires for the rep behind the counter to notice it.
It is pretty annoying, and I'm not going to change my account. So I walk up to the counter, ask for what I need (usually more than one slip, as I deal with more than one account), and just stand there at the counter and fill everything out. If I hold up the line, that is Commerce's problem.
@Rectilinear Propagation: yeah... i haven't read the original story yet - but why wasn't the other benjamin asking questions when his account was short $5 million?
also... i'm afraid to ask what the overdraft fees will be. eeek.
I would have taken it and put it in a high yield money market or savings account. When they asked for it back, I'd have had the interest! :p
@jaydez: @IphtashuFitz:
no, it's $100,000 per person, no matter how many accounts at how many banks.
If something like this had happened to me, I would get a notarized written statement that I believed this to be an error but the bank swears it is my money.
Even then, I probably wouldn't touch it for at least a month.
The next headline on Consumerist will be "Commerce Bank Won't Compensate Man for Money the Bank Accidently Gave to Someone Else".
@alice_bunnie: Good idea, even at a crap 1% interest rate like what BofA is offering me, you'd still get about $5,000
BoA accidentally added a zero to a $2000 deposit of mine once, but they corrected the mistake before the transaction went from Pending to Cleared. I was disappointed.
My plan would've been to withdraw the difference in a Cashier's Check, and make BoA go through a protracted legal fight to get it back, costing them more than $18K. But I'm kind of mean :-)
Shouldn't Commerce Bank be charged with Grand Stupidity?
On the other hand, Lovell's actions say a lot about how we handle money in our society.
the guy did indeed tell them multiple times about their mistake. they said it was his.
also, he withdrew $1m of it in one transaction on one day, and Commerce didn't think to perform due diligence? Brilliant!
Did he really think no one would notice a missing 5 million?