FACT CHECK: Image Claims To Show Young Boy Who Stole $75 Billion From A Swiss Bank

An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a young boy in court who hacked into a Swiss bank and transferred billions of dollars into his father’s bank account.

Verdict: False

The boy in the photo was actually on trial for killing his father in 2009, not for hacking a Swiss bank.

Fact Check:

The Facebook post includes a collage of three photos showing a young boy wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit with his hands shackled in what appears to be a courtroom.

“At 11, he hacked into the computer system of a Swiss bank and transferred $ 75 billion to his father’s account,” reads the post’s caption. (RELATED: Do These Photos Show The Execution Of An Algerian Computer Hacker?)

The boy in the photo is not, however, on trial for transfering billions of dollars to his father. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found the image of the boy sitting and looking off to the side featured in a 2009 article published by CBS News titled, “14-Year-Old Charged With Killing Father Sparks A Protest Movement,” which identified him as Zachary Neagle.

Neagle shot and killed his 32-year-old father as he slept in their Caldwell, Idaho, home in May 2009, according to the Idaho Press. He pleaded guilty to killing his father on a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter in 2010 after testifying that his father sexually abused him, according to the report, and was released on parole in 2014.

The other two images included in the post, the one on the top-right showing Neagle sitting, and the one on the left showing him standing with his hands shackled, were both published by AP Images. According to the photos’ captions, they were taken during Neagle’s initial court appearance in May 2009.

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