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Teenage Wall Street star comes clean as a hoax

Mohammed 'Mo' Islam, the 17-year-old who The New York Post yesterday dubbed the 'teen wolf of Wal...
Newstalk
Newstalk

10.34 16 Dec 2014


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Teenage Wall Street star comes...

Teenage Wall Street star comes clean as a hoax

Newstalk
Newstalk

10.34 16 Dec 2014


Share this article


Mohammed 'Mo' Islam, the 17-year-old who The New York Post yesterday dubbed the 'teen wolf of Wall Street', is now saying that he made the whole thing up.

The high school student was profiled in New York Magazine's annual 'Reasons to Love New York Issue'. The story sounded too good to be true and it now seems that it was. 'Mo' is just a kid who got in touch with a reporter and spun her a yarn that quickly got out of control. 

The real amount of money that he's made on stocks is none. He is president of his high school's investment club - but they only run simulated trades.

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In a sit down with the New York Observer he said that his parents were no longer speaking to him, and that he had spent the previous night staying with friends.

He expressed his regret: "I am incredibly sorry for any misjudgment and any hurt I caused. The people I’m most sorry for is my parents. I did something where I can no longer gain their trust."

The cracks in the story began to show earlier in the day when the teen pulled out of an appearance on CNBC.

At this point the story was still believed to be real - but 'Mo' was having second thoughts about the hype that the story had created.

There has been a backlash against New York Magazine for not validating his story before publishing the interview.

The original piece is still live on its site.

As part of his admission, 'Mo' confessed that he had mislead Jessica Pressler.

The story still doesn't fully add up. He says that a friend of his father put him in touch with the reporter - but it is unclear why he would do this.

There is also the profile in Business Insider published when 'Mo' was 16 - in which he discusses trading gold and oil, the same markets that he told New York Magazine he had made his millions from.


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