A lie, Islam confesses.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: It was a sensational story, and most people who read it in the New York magazine had no reason to disbelieve it – after all stocks have been on a dizzy high this year and money makers at hedge funds are buying luxurious private jets once again: a Stuyvesant High senior named Mohammed Islam,17, claimed he had made a fortune investing in the stock market, all of $72 million.
Reporter Jessica Pressler of New York magazine wrote: “Though he is shy about the $72 million number, he confirmed his net worth is in the ‘high eight figures.’ ”
The New York Post followed up with a story of its own on Islam’s fabulous success at the stock market: “High school student scores $72M playing the stock market.”
Except for one thing: it was total fabrication on the part of Islam. He had lied in the interview he gave to New York magazine. Islam has never dabbled with real money is stocks. He has never made any money at all in stocks.
Islam, along with his friend Damir Tulemaganbetov, who also was part of the grand hoax story, have now hired a team of crisis experts, including a lawyer, to stem damage to their reputation, and see through this phase of their life without any legal troubles emanating from their hoax to the media.
New York magazine, who placed Islam’s fake assets of $72 million at No. 12 in its 10th annual “Reasons to Love New York” issue in December, have since altered their headline removing the $72 million dollar figure from the text.
Islam and Tulemaganbetov clarified in an interview to New York Observer that they had outright lied.
The Observer pointed out that the hoax was yet another fact-checking not done piece after the Rolling Stone campus rape story unraveled as a fabrication.
In the interview to the Observer, Islam says he runs an “investment club at Stuy High which does only simulated trades” but had never traded with real money and made any money on the stock market.
Islam also said: “At school, first things first. I am incredibly sorry for any misjudgment and any hurt I caused. The people I’m most sorry for is my parents. I did something where I can no longer gain their trust. I have one sister, two years younger, and we don’t really talk.”