A 32-year-old man suddenly became one of the richest people in the world thanks to a transfer of still unknown origin, but the authorities blocked his account to understand the origin of the transaction. An absurd story which has as its protagonist Ahmad Jahangard Takalo, who while shopping in a supermarket in Van, Turkey, discovered that the malfunction of his card was due to the sum of one trillion Turkish liras present in his account.
The 20 billion bank transfer
Takalo, originally from Azerbaijan but resident in Türkiye for over 10 years, went to a branch of his bank to ask for explanations after the problem at the checkout. The 32-year-old, as told to the broadcaster NTV, couldn’t believe he had all that money in his account: a trillion Turkish liras, of which 999,999,999,999 liras and 99 kuruş, equivalent to over 20 billion dollars, coming from a mysterious transfer.
The blocked accounts
The arrival of the large sum has had far from fortunate implications for the 32-year-old, who has had all his accounts blocked for about a month following the opening of an investigation ordered by the same banking institution and now conducted by Masak, Turkey’s financial intelligence unit. “Once it was ascertained that over 20 billion dollars had been paid into the account – the man said, describing the incident to the television broadcaster NTV -, the bank employees themselves were disconcerted. The employee called his superior, the superior called the bank director, they all got together and found it very funny”.
Among the richest in the world
Although the accounts remain inaccessible at the moment, Takalo said he asked the artificial intelligence what it could do with the enormous sum: “You could build a thousand stadiums – replied the digital assistant -, buy nine trucks loaded with gold or found a country with a population of 300,000 inhabitants”. The 32-year-old, who cannot access his account, hopes the situation will be resolved soon. With a sum of over 20 billion dollars (21.8 billion to be precise) Takalo would rise to 116th place in the ranking of the richest people in the world, but to understand what will happen to that money it will be necessary to wait for the end of the investigations.