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Did This Kid Really Make $72 Million During Lunch?

Money makes the world go round, right?

Editor's Note: Less than 24 hours after this story went viral, Islam admitted to the New York Observer that he'd made it all up and that he merely runs an investment club at his school but has not made any money in the stock market.

Lunchtime: it's that essential break in the day when you get to catch up with friends, check your feeds, eat some crappy lunch line food and, oh, if you're 17-year-old Mohammed "Teen Wolf" Islam, allegedly rake in $72 million playing the stock market.

New York magazine reported that the Queens, New York, teen made millions of dollars during his lunch breaks, which he used to buy a new BMW (which he can't drive yet because he doesn't have a license right now) and rent an apartment in the city. And though his parents won't let him move out of their house just yet, the president of Stuyvesant High School's Investment Club seems set for life before he even walks at graduation.

The quiet son of Bengali immigrants has been profiled in his school paper and landed on a list of young money hustlers to watch in the Business Insider. When New York recently caught up with him and pal Damir Tulemaganbetov, the pair chowed down on caviar and green drinks as revealed that they were weighing an offer from a "hedge fund guy" who they said wanted to give them $150 million to invest.

Now, along with two friends, Mohammed plans to launch his own hedge fund in June, when he turns 18 and can officially get his broker-dealer license. The trio also plan to go to college next year, but they're not worried about Psych 101 getting in the way of their ultimate goal: $1 billion. "By next year!" said pal Damir Tulemaganbetov. "But it’s not just about money. We want to create a brotherhood. Like, all of us who are connected, who are in something together, who have influence, like the Koch brothers …"

Damir likened Mohammed to "Wolf of Wall Street" anti-hero Jordan Belfort, who, coincidentally, also got his start in penny stocks. After a cousin showed Mohammed how to trade the stocks, the teen got hooked on it, but got spooked after losing a bunch of money he'd made tutoring... as a 9 year-old.

"I had been paralyzed by my loss," said Mohammed, who went on to study hedge fund managers and try to learn their secrets. He graduated to trading oil and gold and while he wouldn't confirm the widely reported $72 million figure, Islam said his net worth is in the "high eight figures."

"It all comes down to this," he said. "What makes the world go round? Money. If money is not flowing, if businesses don’t keep going, there’s no innovation, no products, no investments, no growth, no jobs."

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