Imagine one day you wake up as a 24-year-old man and you suddenly have a random 46.3 Million Yen ($360,000 USD) sitting in your bank account. The reasoning: Covid relief. Even as the money is meant to go towards the necessities, you gamble it away on online casino forums. Later on, you then learn you were sent the money accidentally.

Well, for one 24-year-old man living in the town Abu, Yamaguchi Prefecture this isn’t something that has to be imagined. As you may assume, his lawyer has stated the man is unlikely to be able to return the money and while speaking at a press conference yesterday, the lawyer also said the man told him the money has been transferred via his smartphone.

Japanese town officials mistakenly credits RM1.58m Covid-19 relief aid to one household — **Image Source**

Last week, the town that originally sent the man the money for Covid relief, has sued him for around 51 Million Yen for the full return of the funds plus legal fees. The man claimed the funds were "moved from my account and cannot be returned. I will atone for my sins."

The town claimed the man became unreachable, but his lawyer disputed stating that the town kept his phone following questioning in April and May. On April 6, after procedures to transfer 100,000 Yen in Covid relief money to each of the 463 low-income households in Abu had been completed, a town official mistakenly submitted a single transfer request to a financial institution for 46.3 Million Yen for the man whose name was at the top of the list.

The entire amount was transferred to the man's bank account on April 8 and has since then been gambled away with no hope of being paid back. This isn’t the first debacle however of misspent Covid relief funds as I am almost positive a Japanese town spent their Covid relief funds on a giant octopus…

Uniic Media

Covid Funds turn into Covid Fun