Old photos shared on social media of a boy inside a U.S. courtroom do not show an 11-year-old who was caught hacking a Swiss bank to give billions of dollars to his father, as alleged by some users.
Three images, which have been used to make the claim on Facebook (here), show the boy wearing handcuffs and a yellow prison uniform. An accompanying caption reads: “At 11, he hacked the computer system of a Swiss bank and transferred $75 billion to his father’s account.”
However, this is not an accurate description of the photos. Rather, the images were captured in 2009 and show a then 14-year-old Zachary Neagle, who was on trial in Idaho after being accused of murdering his father Jason (here). Zachary said he had fatally shot Jason to protect his siblings after suffering years of sexual abuse.
Eventually pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter, Zachary was sentenced to seven years in prison – and was released on probation in five (here , here and here).
Reuters was unable to find any evidence of a story relating to a boy stealing billions of dollars from a Swiss bank to siphon the cash off to his father.
VERDICT
False. The photos show Zachary Neagle, a then 14-year-old from Idaho who killed his father and later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
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