Dump The Pump

[scion]

Error adds $1,191,825 to man's bank account
[FIN Edition]

Toronto Star - Toronto, Ont.
Author: Bill Taylor Toronto Star
Date: Jun 27, 1990
Start Page: A.2
Section: NEWS
Text Word Count: 233

Document Text

Student John Bordynuik was a two-day millionaire, thanks to a Toronto Dominion Bank computer mix-up.

"I went to a Green Machine instant teller in Welland on Sunday to pull out $5 for gas," said Bordynuik, 20, a student of nuclear physics and computer technology at Brock University in St. Catharines.

"I wound up with $400. I went back again and it gave me another $400. It was letting me pull out cash, cash, cash."

Curious to know just how much the Green Machine thought he had, Bordynuik began punching buttons to transfer $95,000 at a time from his chequing account to his savings account.

"I wound up with $1,191,825 in there," he said yesterday. "I'm keeping the slips as a souvenir of what might have been."

Bordynuik said friends urged him to "get a certified cheque from TD first thing Monday and transfer it to another bank. But I called TD instead to tell them.

"At first they kept saying, 'What's the problem? What's the big deal?' They seemed to think it was my money. Then I went in with their $800 and they were very grateful.

"I'm an honest man but I'm not very happy right now. My chequing account's back to where it was: $6.77 to be exact."

Toronto Dominion official Beverly MacLean said the bank had so far accounted for only $400,000 in wrongly transferred money.

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/472053841.html?dids=472053841:472053841&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+27%2C+1990&author=Bill+Taylor+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&edition=&startpage=A.2&desc=Error+adds+%241%2C191%2C825+to+man%27s+bank+account