Bank accidentally gives man $5 million!!!! Is he guilty or Not?

NEW YORK - A man was charged with withdrawing $2 million from an account after a bank confused him with a man who has the same name. 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. 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 The lesser-funded Lovell gave away some of the withdrawn money and blew some of it on gifts, but lost much of it on bad investments, prosecutors said.

Ok, People what you think about this? Should he be charged or not?

I mean he told the bank it was not his --they kept telling him it was so he used it. Is he guilty or not?

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Not guilty. No way. If he told the bank the money wasn't his, and the bank insisted it was, then what are you supposed to do?

Originally posted by watch_the_rocks
If he told the bank the money wasn't his, and the bank insisted it was, then what are you supposed to do?

Draw out all the cash and spend some of it on cosmetic surgery and a false identity.

reply to post by AGENT_T


Oh that was funny. I choked on that one.

He should have only taken what he knew belonged to him then waited.

He knew it did not belong to him, so that makes him culpable.

I would have let the money sit there for at least 6 months, in which case, after that, if they hadnt found the error>>> I'd be living La Vida Loca (outside of the country)

If it had been something other than money, say 50 pounds of coc aine, he would have insisted on NOT taking it because he knew he'd be in trouble. He knew it wasn't his and that eventually he'd be in trouble over it but it was MONEY! Guilty.

lol Well if they made the mistake then its there problem! lol, Well that what i would like to happen,

Gosh i would have Shopped till i dropped then moved to Spain LOL

reply to post by dgtempe


Exactly!

He knew the money wasn't his in the first place.

It was a deliberate 'pre-meditated' act on his part.

To simply state that another person said it was his, isn't enough.

Oral contracts mean squat diddly in the courts. If it isn't written down on paper, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Those types of actions clog up the time and money in the Judicial System.

Did he think he wasn't going to get caught? Unbelievable.

~Ducky~



[edit on 21-2-2008 by TheDuckster]

Yes, he knew the money wasn’t his. However, what if he just thought someone gave him the money and deposited into his account. (a little far fetch I know) But, everyone’s account number is on the bottom of their checks. It could have been he thought maybe someone gave it to him. I don’t know. This is crazy. I would of went nuts and went all the way to the top until I found out how it got into my account or what exactly was going on.

After, I did everything I thought I could do I would of made sure the President of the bank signed me a letter saying it was mine and I can have it. Then the trouble would have been his. Not mine.

Commerce Bank and Woodlawn Trustees did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Legal Aid attorney representing Lovell could not be reached for comment either. Lovell is being held on $3 million bail. He faces up to 25 years behind bars if convicted, prosecutors said.

Oh this is not good at all. A legal aid attorney. He dosen't have a chance.




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Originally posted by TheDuckster
Oral contracts mean squat diddly in the courts. If it isn't written down on paper, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.

Exactly. If you were going to try and take the money without getting in trouble, then you'd have to get the bank to sign a document verifying you as the owner of the money. They'd either discover their mistake and fix it or hand the money over to you, and then take the fall when the mistake is eventually discovered.

Personally, I wouldn't have taken it. Stealing is stealing, even if someone tells you that its yours.

I knew someone who had $1400 deposited into her account by mistake. She tried to clear it up with the bank but it didn't happen fast enough for her so she spent it, and then ended up having to either pay it back or face charges.

If he knew it wasn't his money, he shouldn't have spent it. That's theft, pure and simple.

He should have left the money in his account without ever allowing the balance to go below 5million and just withdraw the interest, that way he's never actually spent any of the original deposit and it would be harder to prove in court if the bank ever noticed the error their money would always be available for immediate return.


Easier said than done though eh?

From my understanding of the published news reports the money wasn't in his account. It was in an account of a person of the same name.

The account belonged to Woodlawn Trustees Inc, a Delaware property management company, and was listed under the name of its finance director, who is also named Benjamin Lovell, court papers said.

Lovell had just $800 in his own Commerce Bank account when he went to make a deposit, but a teller, mistaking the Woodlawn account for Lovell's personal account, told him that his account contained more than $5 million, prosecutors said.

Yahoo News

He is totally guilty, he knows what he did was wrong, and he should pay for his crime.


Edit: Fixed link

[edit on 21/2/2008 by anxietydisorder]

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That is so true. Given this fact, he should of known better. For whatever reason I was thinking it was actually in his account. Which is why I said someone could of deposited it there like a gift or something.

But, given the fact that it was someone's else's account. Well he did very wrong then. I wonder if he knew the lady was looking at someone's account. None the less when you know or think a mistake has been made of this nature it may take a few weeks to get it all straighten back out.

However, in this account just going back later that day to a different teller probably would of fixed the mistake.

If my bank account suddenly had $5mil in it...

...I'd be all like "HEY! Where's the other 15?!?!?!"

No, just kidding...sadly.

Seriously though, if I told them it wasn't mine, they insisted it was, then I'd get it on paper, I'd go find a good lawyer, and find out what all steps I needed to take to ensure that the money was mine. If he couldn't find one, then I'd transfer the money to a higher interest account, and just wait till the day the bank called me and said "Uh... you know how we said that money was yours? Turns out it wasn't... it was for the OTHER Lebowski..."

Then I'd say "Oh, sorry, right you are then." And transfer the $5mil back over, and end up legally netting myself a few thousand interest in the process. I'd much rather have a couple thousand dollar LEGAL windfall, than a few million dollar illegal one.

Thelibra


He didn’t act very smart about the whole thing. He should of done better with this whole mess. As another poster said though it wasn’t even in his account. They had pulled up the wrong name. If I understood right. Seems like a human mistake on the bank side though.

He is going to be so screwed though. Looks like he’ll be serving time in prison.

NEW YORK — A defense lawyer says her client believed he was rightfully entitled to the $2 million he's accused of stealing from a bank account managed by someone with the same name.


Attorney Julie Fry says Benjamin Lovell "didn't intend to steal from anyone." She says he'll explain in court what the bank told him that led him to believe the $5.8 million account was his.

The 48-year-old Brooklyn salesman has been arrested on grand larceny charges. A judge lowered his bail Friday from $1 million to $10,000 in cash.

Authorities say he spent the misbegotten money on jewelry, cash gifts to friends and a number of failed investments.

The account belonged to a trust, and a different Benjamin Lovell was a signatory on it.

link


OH wow, same name. I just truly wonder what is going to happen to this guy. I would really like to know if he knew or not if it was or wasn't his.