A 20-year-old student at the University of Nebraska Lincoln committed suicide last Friday after believing his account on the Robinhood trading app showed a negative $730,000 balance.
Alexander E. Kearns stepped in front of an oncoming train after reading the balance while visiting his parents in Naperville, Illinois.
“That cash balance scared him so much that he was not thinking straight,” according to William Brewster, a family member. ” The only answer he could think of giving his mental state at the time was to kill himself in order to protect his family from his financial losses.”
Though the app showed the negative balance, multiple outlets report that the balance was only temporary and didn’t actually represent indebtedness.
“I believe they have had this problem from day one,” said Brewster. “I have gotten many responses in my twitter feed that would that this so-called feature as a design feature than a glitch.”
Brewster said he’s been in contact with Robinhood in an attempt to get them to explain why the negative balance was so large.
“Robinhood won’t talk about it,” said Brewster. “Why does this show this cash balance? Why is that necessary? And what can you do to prevent people from getting scared when they see that cash balance so that this never happens again?”
“I want to know why I have to go bury a family member,” said Brewster.
He adds that family members aren’t the only ones hurt by Kearns’s passing.
“On top of all this, there is a train driver that is very traumatized,” said Brewster. “This impacts a lot of people and they’re the ones that are able to hide behind a cooperate statement and that is not right.”
He advises those who intend on using trading apps like Robinhood to be extremely cautious.