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Last June, 20-year-old Alex Kearns committed suicide, blaming the Robinhood scholarship app for his death. He mistakenly believed that he had lost $ 730,000 and that the company was coming back for over $ 170,000 of that money within days. His family now agree it was Robinhood’s fault – on Monday they sued the company for wrongful death.
According to the complaint, Kearns never owed any money at all, but that didn’t stop the Robinhood app from suggesting he was doing it, or sending him an “immediate action required” email telling him that he had to deposit $ 178,612.73 by June 17.
Here is a screenshot one of his relatives shared on Twitter last June what the app allegedly showed him at the time:
Kearns reportedly attempted to contact Robinhood’s help desk four times, but only received an automated message. The day after his death, Robinhood sent another automated message to let him know he owed no money at all, according to one CBS News story which includes an interview with Kearns’ family.
Later that month, when news of his death spread, Robinhood vowed to change how its app works, educate its users, and pledged $ 250,000 to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
The new trial isn’t the only reason this story is freshly relevant. Robinhood is also facing dozens of lawsuits for its role in the GameStop / Reddit / Wall Street Bets saga, where individual traders banded together to manipulate stocks that had been sold short, but some traders blame them for huge losses after Robinhood froze how much and when they could invest. The company’s software also automatically sold certain options (but not stocks, according to Robinhood) to sub-traders.
Regardless, the huge run on GameStop now seems over, and unlike Kearns, many people may have lost huge amounts of real money games through Robinhood and other apps. If you know someone who has done it, they can find the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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