What would you have done if you were Leo Gao?

Leo Gao: Accidental Multi-Millionaire

Off the Top of my Head

What would you have done if you were Leo Gao?

After battling away for years working hard as a small business owner, struggling to make ends meet…working 15 hours a day and going backwards financially, Chinese migrant Hui Leo Gao approached his bank for an overdraft facility of $100,000 to cover a seasonal downturn in his business cash flow.

Instead, due to a Westpac Bank clerical error, his account was credited with 100 times the amount he requested. Imagine yourself in his shoes…suddenly all the stress, tension and worry is gone, your account is now $10,000,000 in the black and you’re on easy street.

Pennies from heaven, but hang on, the money isn’t yours, surely there has been a mistake…I should alert the bank to their error and return the money…or would I perhaps missing a great opportunity…everything happens for a reason…should I take the money and run? Gao was in a quandary, his honest nature suggested he should fess up and take it on the chin, but he also couldn’t help thinking about the benefits of the unexpected windfall…the opportunity to change his life forever.

Gao claims to have felt as if he was being set up, why was this happening to him? Who was behind the digital fortune now in his possession? Was it real? was the money really in his account? He decided to go to the bank, to verify his account balance and to at least give them the chance to spot the error…put the ball in Westpac’s court. He went into his branch, the one he’d been banking at for years and approached a teller, with whom he’d likely dealt with before. He joked with her that his financial situation had significantly improved since his last visit to the bank…the teller must have seen the bank balance, but did not register or question that there was suddenly an unusually large amount of money in Gao’s account.

Gao’s situation was exacerbated by his father’s gambling addiction, which depleted his families’ coffers…a problem that Gao claims afflicts many New Zealand migrants who find themselves in a culture that is alien and exclusive to them.

Gao decided not to look his gift horse in the mouth and began to transfer money into offshore bank accounts. He shifted $6.7 million out of his account and then flew to Hong Kong to join his jackpot. On arrival, he found that his life was not exactly as he imagined it might be. The New Zealand Government, N.Z. Police, Interpol and presumably the SIS were hunting him…life as a multi-millionaire on the lam was even more tense, stressful and traumatic than pumping gas in Rotorua.

Gao decided to give himself up and do the time for his “crime.”

An excellent question would be…just how much money did the New Zealand Government spend on trying to recover money inadvertently lost by an Aussie bank? Ask yourself, how much responsibility did Westpac take for a) Making a banking error and b) Not spotting the error when given the opportunity to do so.

Gao stated in a recent TVNZ interview that he and his fellow migrants had few Kiwi friends and found it difficult to assimilate into New Zealand life…addressing this problem would surely have been a better way to spend N.Z. Govt money rather than funding an international chase to recover money laxly lost by a foreign corporation that last year made a profit of $AU6 billion.

Given the amount of money banks and bankers fleece from us on a daily basis, I think Gao did what any reasonable man would have done; take the money and run. Gao must have had a pretty good time and fair play to him…most of the money has been accounted for, but about $3 million has mysteriously vanished…he’s now back in New Zealand, manning up, facing the music and doing his time…the missing millions? Hopefully, safely stashed away for his release…Mr Gao, you are my Robin Hood.