Schoolboy investor who led the world to believe he made $72m now says he made the whole thing up - but magazine claims to have seen proof he's worth at least $10million
* Mohammed Islam, 17, came clean while surrounded by his new friends--a crisis team of PR pros and attorneys
* A firestorm of criticism has since been aimed at New York Magazine for printing a story that appeared to back up the $72m claim
* NYmag reporter Jessica Pressler hit back Monday claiming they indeed saw documents 'confirming the eight figures' Islam was rumored to have
The New York City high schooler who gained overnight fame after he told a reporter he'd made $72 million trading stocks on his lunch break now says he's made it all up.
Mohammed Islam, 17, has now hired a pricey crisis PR firm and battle-tested attorneys to help him spread the word.
He was surrounded by his new entourage when he came clean to the New York Observer about his little fib-turned-major international news story on Monday.
He now claims to have no clue where New York Magazine came up with the huge figure.
Meanwhile, the reporter whose story made Islam an internet star insists she was shown bank statements that show he's worth eight figures, which would mean at least $10 million.
Islam, president of prestigious Stuyvesant High School's investment club, now claims it was really all just simulated money he made using an online trading program.
The Queens teen told the Observer that not only was the $72 million totally false, but he's never made any money in the stock market at all.
'[I led her to believe] I had made even more than $72 million on the simulated trades,' he told the Observer.
A firestorm of criticism was unleashed in the wake of Islam's retraction on New York Magazine and the original article's author Jessica Pressler.
Detractors say the writer failed to do appropriate fact checking for her article.
The Observer's Ken Kurson writes:
'Even if this working-class kid had somehow started with $100,000 as a high school freshman on day one at Stuy High, he’d have needed to average a compounded annualized return of something like 796% over the three years since. C’mon, man.'
Helaine Olen of the Pacific Standard took to Twitter, as many did Monday, to demand that Pressler come up with some answers to how she and her publication managed to pass off the seeming impossibility as fact.
'OK. Here goes ... did he show statements? I have a 15 yr old so I want to believe,' Olen tweeted.
Pressler responded to the criticism through Twitter on Monday morning.
'We saw a bank statement confirming the eight figures, & I'm comfortable with what's in the piece,' she wrote.
In the wake of the controversy New York Magazine felt compelled to add an editor's note to qualify their now contentious article.
'Our story portrays the $72 million figure as a rumor; the initial headline has been changed to more clearly reflect the fact that we did not know the exact figure he has made in trades. However, Mohammed provided bank statements that showed he is worth eight figures, and he confirmed on the record that he’s worth eight figures.'
So, as the Observer and everyone else wants to know: where did Pressler come up with the $72 million figure?
In Islam's own words, 'The number’s a rumor.'
Indeed, Pressler does not state the $72 million figure as fact in her original article.
Regardless, NYmag.com has since changed the original headline so as not to reflect that number.