Today in History - August 24: His illegal move made him six figures in minutes. But a major company lost billions
A 23-year-old looking to make a quick buck cost a major tech company the equivalent of A$6.43 billion in a matter of minutes on August 24, 2000.
Community college student Mark Jakob attempted a stock short by selling 3000 shares in Emulex, a computer hardware company.
But when Emulex shares instead went up, Jakob faced a six-figure loss.
To turn things around, Jakob sent out a press release pretending to be from the company.
He announced the company was revising its quarterly earnings to a loss, and that the CEO was stepping down.
When news outlets reported on the press release, Emulex's stock price more than halved in 16 minutes and it lost billions in value.
Jakob then repurchased Emulex shares soon before his hoax was revealed, turning a six-figure profit when the shares were corrected.
The FBI soon tracked his email to a computer library at El Camino Community College.
In a matter of days, Jakob was arrested and charged.
He was sentenced to 44 months in prison. His actions cost shareholders more than $100 million dollars.
On August 24, 2001, a packed passenger jet ran out of fuel over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, forcing the crew to make a perilous 120km glide to a remote island airfield.
Air Transat Flight 236 was flying from Toronto to Lisbon with 306 people aboard when it suddenly began to run out of fuel and the engines died.
The pilot's only option was to make an emergency landing at a remote airfield on the Azores islands. But he had only one chance to get it right.
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