Oblivious Law Grad Pays Off $114,000 Loan in Cash, Irritating Everyone

Employees of two different banks have reason to resent University of Toronto graduate Alex Kenjeev, who withdrew $114,000 in cash from his Royal Bank of Canada account, put it in a duffel bag, and walked two blocks to pay off his student loan at Scotiabank. Employees at RBC spent three days processing and counting out the bills for the withdrawal, which he earned in his day job at a venture-capital firm. He had to stay at Scotiabank while employees spent two and a half hours counting it again.

Kenjeev told Business Insider, which picked up the story after someone posted a photo of his deposit receipt to Reddit, that he “didn’t really realize how much of a hassle I’d cause for everybody.”

Kenjeev, who thought it would be funny to pay off his loan in cash, a mere three years after his 2009 graduation, may have underestimated the emotional toll his symbolic gesture took on others. After all, while Kenjeev had posted the photo to Facebook, Business Insider found it on Reddit, meaning that someone Kenjeev knows is probably the culprit. A jealous law school friend? A debt-laden, unemployed acquaintance? Kenjeev doesn’t know either. He adds: “Some people have taken it pretty offensively. I actually think they have a point. It hadn’t really occurred to me.”