Yep. We fell for it too.
The most generous beer baron in the world did not make the people of his hometown all millionaires overnight, despite reports in the media from Spain.
Antonino Fernandez died in August at the age of 98, and was reported to have left €169m to the 80 people of Cerezales del Condado, the town where he was born, which comes in at over €2m per person.
Unfortunately, while he made sizable donations to the town he did not split much of his fortune between individual citizens.
IBTimes UK reports that, having contacted Vegas del Condado council in the Province of Leon, they learned that while donations from the billionaire Fernández had indeed made a big difference to the region, “there is no truth to reports that individual villagers have been made millionaires.”
The locals confirmed the news, or lack thereof.
“It’s simply not true, unfortunately,” Lucia Alaejos from the Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia said.
“It seems someone got the wrong end of the stick and the story has just grown and grown,” she told the Local Spain.
“It’s got completely out of hand.”
