A man who was paid 330 times his salary after an extraordinary payroll error was allowed to keep the money despite a lengthy legal battle.
The unusual case occurred in Santiago, Chile, where an employee of Consorcio Industrial de Alimentos (CIAL), a business group specialising in the production and marketing of processed foods across Latin America, was accidentally paid 330 times his salary.
In May 2022, the distribution assistant, who was expecting 500,000 pesos (about €522), discovered that 165,398,851 million Chilean pesos – roughly $180,000 or €172,000 – had been deposited into his account.
“At first, the lucky man informed the company about what had happened and even promised to go to the bank to personally arrange the refund and return the excess amount. But he must have thought better of it and disappeared instead,” reported Diario Financiero .
For three days, he could not be reached and did not show up for work. After 72 hours, he submitted a formal letter of resignation through his solicitor, effectively keeping the money while ending his employment.
The company quickly filed a criminal complaint for theft, arguing that the employee had no right to the money. However, during the subsequent three-year legal battle, the worker’s lawyers maintained that there was no theft: the deposit was made entirely by mistake, and the employee had not manipulated or interfered with the payment system.
“There was no deception, fraud or any prior manoeuvre,” they insisted, emphasising that “the deposit was the sole responsibility of the company and that the worker simply received the transfer into his account.”
In September 2025, the Santiago court ruled in favour of the employee. Judges concluded that the act did not constitute theft, but rather ‘unauthorised appropriation’, an offence that is not punishable under Chilean law.
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