Man becomes world's first trillionaire thanks to bank glitch

Unfortunately for Reggie Theus he was not financially the world's first trillionaire and in fact the bank had made a mistake in calculating his account details.

Despite dreaming of the courageous stunt of paying off the United States' multi-billion national debt, the restaurant manager's account was shortly restored back to its original amount.

He told US broadcaster KLTV: "Well, I was definitely surprised when I looked in my account and saw that much money in there."

"I looked it up and there’s never been a trillionaire before. I may be the first ever, so that’s pretty neat to be able to say."

Reggie now will have to start at square one in his search to be the world's richest man once again but he's along way off Carlos Slim who has topped the rich list four years running.

The 73-year-old Mexican was valued at $73 billion by Forbes in their annual billionaires list in March.

He sits above Bill Gates, who is in second, earning his fortune through soaring stock prices at his financial arm, Grupo Financiero Inbursa, and at his Grupo Carso industrial giant.

He also owns Pan-Latin American mobile company, America Movil, which is worth $36.3 billion