A millionaire in China once withdrew ₹ 6.5 crore from bank and ordered them to count the money by hand after a disagreement with the staff. The incident happened at a branch of Bank of Shanghai in 2021 (at the time of Covid-19) after the man had an argument with the security staff, according to a report in Insider. The news was widely covered by Chinese media and became a trending topic on Weibo and other social media platforms in the country, the outlet further said.
The man, who goes by username ‘Sunwear’, wrote on Weibo that he withdrew about five million renminbi ($783,000 at the 2021 exchange rate) from the Bank of Shanghai branch after receiving the “worst customer service”. He also complained about the “terrible attitude” of the security staff.
‘Sunwear’ said he then took out the maximum he could withdraw in a day and also mentioned that he had plans to take out the rest “tens of millions” to be deposited to other banks.
The millionaire further said that it took the bank staff more than two hours to count the money by hand.
Images purportedly showing the bank staff counting huge bundles of cash and the man walking out with suitcases full of currency had gone viral on social media.
The pictures were originally posted on Weibo and later appeared on Twitter (now rebranded as X). However, NDTV cannot independently verify the authenticity of the images.
The bank, meanwhile, said the disagreement happened because the millionaire wasn’t following the Covid-19 protocol. In a statement to Chinese media outlet The Paper, the Bank of Shanghai said the man was not wearing a mask while entering the branch. As per the protocol in place then, the security staff asked him to put on one that led to the argument.
After the bank’s statement, ‘Sunwear’ said on Weibo that he had forgotten to bring the mask and asked for a spare. He insisted he didn’t refuse to wear a mask and complied with the Covid-19 rules.