Last June, 20-year-old Alex Kearns died of suicide, blaming the stock app Robinhood for his death. He mistakenly believed that he had lost $ 730,000 and that the company would get more than $ 170,000 of the money within days. His family now agrees that it was Robinhood’s fault. They sued the company Monday for the wrongful death.
According to the complaint, Kearns never owes money, but that prevents the Robinhood app from suggesting he did so, or sending him an email with immediate action saying he’s $ 178,612.73 by June 17th. must deposit.
Here is a screenshot one of his family members shared on Twitter last June what the app apparently showed him at the time:
Kearns allegedly tried to contact Robinhood’s support department four times, but received only an automated message. The day after his death, Robinhood sent another automated message to let him know he did not owe any money at all, according to a CBS News story that includes an interview with Kearns’ family.
Later that month, when the news of his death spread, Robinhood promised to change the way his app works, educate its users, and pledged $ 250,000 to the American Suicide Prevention Foundation.
The new lawsuit is not the only reason this story is just relevant. Robinhood is also now facing dozens of lawsuits for its role in the GameStop / Reddit / Wall Street Bets saga, where individual traders conspired to manipulate shorted shares, 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 some options (though not shares, Robinhood claims).
Either way, the big run on GameStop seems to be over now, and unlike Kearns, many people may have lost huge amounts of real money gambling via Robinhood and other programs. If you know someone who did, they can find the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.