In 2018, Samsung Securities, one of South Korea’s largest financial firms, was rocked by a colossal “fat-finger” error when an employee accidentally issued 2.8 billion shares—worth about $100 billion—to company staff instead of the intended cash dividend. The error was mind-blowing, as it was more than 30 times the company’s actual market value. Even more alarming, 16 employees quickly sold off their mistakenly issued shares within just 37 minutes, sending the stock price into an 11% nosedive before the mistake was caught. The incident sparked public outrage, regulatory investigations, and raised serious concerns about internal controls in financial institutions. It remains one of the most jaw-dropping clerical errors in stock market history.
