BrewDog co-founder James Watt has revealed how £50 million of his money went missing and the “nightmare” he went through to get it back.
He has described it as “the most expensive mistake of my professional life”.
It came after Mr Watt completed an investment deal and was waiting for the cash to be sent to his bank account. He had sold shares in BrewDog worth £50m.
However, a mix-up between himself and his assistant at the time led to the money being instead transferred to a bank account in north Russia.
‘Life-changing money’
Speaking on the secretleaders podcast, and posting on his Instagram page, he said: “In April 2017, I made the most expensive mistake of my professional life.
“We’d closed our first major investment deal and life-changing money was heading my way.
“£50 million of it. Madness.
“Before then I never really had any real experience of money.
“I was just focused on growing the company. So, this kind amount of money was alien territory for me.”
In April 2017, BrewDog, became worth more than £1bn after selling a stake to a US private equity firm.
The brewer raised £213m from TSG Consumer Partners, for a 22.3% stake.
It saw Mr Watt and fellow co founder Martin Dickie paid £50m each with, a further £100m going into the business and the rest used to buy shares from early investors.
Missing cash sparked panic
What happened next was the start of what he described as a “four-day nightmare”.
Mr Watt said: “When the lawyers finally wired the money to my bank, I excitedly logged on to my bank account.
“Day one nothing day two nothing, day three, still nothing.
“By now, I was panicking. I called the bank, and what should have been one of the happiest days of my life turned out to be the start of a four-day nightmare.”
Account details mix-up
One wrong digit had seen the cash make its way to a bank account in the north of Russia.
But despite numerous phone calls he was told the money was unrecoverable.
Mr Watt said: “Between myself and my assistant, we’d messed up the account details.
“One digit of the beneficiary sort code was wrong. But that’s all it took.
“To make matters worse, we’d verbally confirmed the incorrect details with the bank.
“My bank manager then hit me with what is still one of the worst sentences I have ever heard:
“We’ll do our best to help, but since the mistake was on your end, there’s a chance the money is unrecoverable.”
“Unrecoverable. It is hard to describe just how low I felt in that moment.
“What then ensued was the longest four days of my life.”
Warning to ‘check and re-check’
“The next day the bank told me they had managed to track down where the money had been sent to – it was a bank account in the north of Russia of all places.
“I just prayed that the money had not been moved on, in which case there was zero chance I would ever see it again.
“It took four hellish days of my bank working with the Russian bank before they were finally able to return the funds.
“Since then, it feels like I check and re-check the details are correct on every single bank transfer at least a million times.
“And any large sum is always now sent in smaller chunks to minimise the risk.
“Pay attention to the details. Sometimes the tiniest mistakes can cost you the most!”
Investment in energy drink firm
Mr Watt has recently announced his first role after stepping down as BrewDog CEO.
He has joined Virtue Drinks as a strategic advisor to help guide the brand on how to grow its global reputation.
The energy drinks firm has also announced the closing of a £2 million investment round which brings its total funding to more than £5m.
Mr Watt is amongst the latest investors, as well as Premier League footballer Eberechi Eze.
Conversation