A YouTuber has claimed to be the richest person in the world, surpassing the wealth of tech billionaire Elon Musk. But his stint at the top of the money table was short-lived, 7 minutes to be exact. Taking advantage of a market capitalization loophole, Max Fosh also realized he had to immediately dissolve his company as he was accused of fraud. He shared a video on how he made this possible and also why he had to close his business. On paper, he claimed, he was the richest person in the world for 7 minutes.
The video showed how he had set up a business. “In the UK it’s pretty easy to set up a business. There’s such a thing as the company’s house, and you essentially fill out a form,” Mr Fosh said, explaining the procedure. But he needed a name for the company, which should end with “Ltd”. So he mockingly called the company “Unlimited Money Ltd.”
Now he had to decide what the business would be for – the production of macaroni, noodles, couscous and similar flour-like products. “I don’t know what mealy means, but that’s what the company does,” he said.
The next were stocks. He decides on 10 billion. “If I started and registered a company with 10 billion shares, and then sold one of those shares for £50, it would legally value my company at £500 billion, making me the richest man in the world, and my neighbor would absolutely decimate rival Elon Musk,” Fosh said in the video.
However, finding investors was not easy. The YouTuber set up his shop, with two chairs and a table, on a London street.
“Despite my energetic pitch, the no’s kept coming,” he says.
However, after initial setbacks, he found his first investor – a woman who bought one share for 50 pounds.
He asks her, “Why would you want to invest in this company?” She replies, “On a whim I feel like it has to be this way, and eventually I’ll learn something from it.”
Problems soon followed. The video shows Mr Fosh receiving a letter, presumably from the authorities. It read: “Given the range of information provided to us, Unlimited Money Ltd’s market cap has been estimated at £500 billion. Due to a lack of revenue activity, there is a high probability that you will be accused of fraudulent activity. This is why we strongly recommend that Unlimited Money Limited be wound up as a matter of urgency.”
Mr. Fosh did just that. But for 7 minutes, the YouTuber claimed to be the richest man in the world.
Watch the video here:
At the time of writing, the video had been viewed over 5.80 lakh times. It also had a lot of reactions.
One user asked, “So when can we expect the release of “Unlimited Money (TM) Pasta”?
Another user felt sorry for the woman who invested £50. “You should at least take her to a shareholder dinner,” the user wrote.
A third user thought the woman could have asked for 51 pounds to resolve. That way, she could have made “a 2% return on her investment.”
There was also a user who suggested a pun on the name of the company. “Personally I would have gone for ‘Money Un’ so the full name would be ‘Money Un, Limited’,” the user wrote.
This entire episode also sparked a discussion thread – becoming the richest man in the world for 7 minutes – on Reddit. At the time of writing, 87 percent of users voted for it.
So, what do you think of the whole incident? Tell us in the comments below.