Robinhood sued after Naperville’s man died, committing suicide, believing he had lost more than $ 700,000 in stock transactions

NAPERVILLE, Illinois (WLS) – The family of a man from Naperville is suing Robinhood after he died by suicide, after he thought he lost more than $ 700,000 on the stock trading application.

Family lawyers say Alex Kearns, 20, linked the application to his death in his suicide note.

“In fact, he saved the screenshot, attached it to his suicide note; it showed a negative cash balance of $ 730,000,” said Ethan Brown, one of the family’s lawyers.

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The Kearns family is now suing the application, asking to know how the student managed to receive a leverage of almost 1 million dollars.

“In this case, you have a 20-year-old who has no job, lives at home and has a grand total of about $ 16,000 for options trading, which is very complicated,” Brown said.

According to the lawsuit, Kearns received an email that led him to believe he had suffered a massive loss. The lawsuit claims that Kearns’ account was restricted, and his family said the 20-year-old panicked.

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The lawsuit alleges that Robinhood’s communications were misleading.

“The communication suggested that he owes $ 730,000 and also that he will have to make a margin call in a few days, having to come up with $ 178,000 in cash,” Brown said.

According to court documents, Kearns tried to contact Robinhood customer service and received an automatic response.

“One of the great tragedies is that we don’t think he owed anything at all,” Brown said.

Robinhood responded in a statement, saying in part, “We are devastated by the death of Alex Kearns. Since June, we have made improvements to our range of options. In early December, we added live voice support for customers with an open options position or recent expiration, and we plan to expand to other use cases. We’ve also changed our protocol to expand the customers who email us for help with exercise and early distribution.

The Kearns family said Robinhood brought inexperienced investors like Alex to take big risks. I am now pushing for more change to protect others.

“They don’t want any other family to have a tragic situation like they did,” Brown said.