MOSCOW – Aman who became an overnight millionaire due to a banking error has been sentenced to six years behind bars.
Roman Yurkov received 95.2 million rubles ($1.3 million) after a digital technical error while taking money out of his bank account at a bookmaker in Tula, Russia.
The 35-year-old car salesman took advantage of an error during a technical update in his bank’s mobile application in June 2020 and withdrew funds from the account through bookmakers, according to the investigation and as reported by Lenta.ru.
Yurkov said he received a message on his phone that 95 million rubles had been deposited into his VTB bank account and believed the sum was winnings from the bookmaker’s office, Mash reported.
After calling the bank to make sure everything was in order, he said he was told there were no issues with his account.
According to the investigation and Lenta.ru, the 35-year-old car salesperson took advantage of an issue during a technological update in his bank’s mobile application in June 2020 and withdrew monies from the account through bookmakers.
Yurkov told Mash that he received a notification on his phone saying that 95 million rubles had been put into his VTB bank account, and that he assumed the money was from the bookmaker’s office. He stated he called the bank to double-check everything was in order and was told there were no problems with his account.
Yurkov allegedly conducted 220 individual transactions from May 31, 2020 to June 1, 2020, which he spent “at his own discretion,” according to investigators.
Four apartments, a new iPhone, a BMW, and a Mercedes were among the purchases.
“I went out and bought everything I wanted. “Well, except I didn’t buy the plane,” Yurkov told Mash, characterizing the encounter as “like something out of a movie.”
The unwitting millionaire claimed he kept in touch with his bank on a frequent basis to ensure that everything was in order with his account, and that he was regularly assured that everything was alright by bank workers.
However, when the bank began to compile its quarterly report, the matter became public, and Yurkov’s account was shut in November, according to local media.
Yurkov was arrested the next month after his account, which had 39 million rubles ($540,000) in it, was seized.
The 35-year-old was found guilty on June 24 by the Sovetskiy District Court under Article 158 of the Russian Federation’s Criminal Code (“Theft from a bank account, done on an unusually significant scale”), according to the Tulsa Prosecutor’s Office.
Yurkov was found guilty of “taking advantage of a flaw in the bank’s software” and sentenced to six years in jail by the court.
Yurkov is said to be maintaining his innocence, claiming that he did nothing wrong and that the bookmaker made a mistake.
