This 17-year old owns his own BMW, an apartment in Manhattan and is worth $72 million. Or is he?

It was the light relief the world needed after the events of the Sydney siege.

A high school student who made $72 million by trading stocks during his school lunchtime.

With accounts of his incredible BMW and his lavish Manhattan apartment.

We heard of how he took his friends to the swish Morimoto restaurant on 10th Avenue, where they feasted on $400 caviar, expensive dishes and freshly squeezed apple juice.

(Get that freshly squeezed! Only the best for this junior Wolf of Wall Street)

The son of immigrants from the South Asian region of Bengal this whizz kid was making headlines for “dabbling in penny stocks at age 9.”

By the age of 17-year old it was reported that Mohammed Islam had earned up to the “high eight figures.”

It was an amazing success story and was reproduced around the world from TV Networks to Twitter to the cover of New York Magazine.

The only problem was that he made the entire thing up.

Mohammed Islam’s interview with New York Magazine went out on Sunday with the headline “A Stuyvesant Senior Made $72 Million Trading Stocks on His Lunch Break.”

Within hours it had been reported on The Daily Mail, the NY Post, The Guardian and on countless TV networks around the world.

He was a sensation.

“An unbelievable amount of money for anyone, not least a high-school student, but as far as rumors go, this one seemed legit,” the article said.

Islam told the magazine that he preferred trading and investment over startups “What makes the world go round? Money. If money is not flowing, if businesses don’t keep going, there’s no innovation, no products, no investments, no growth, no jobs.”

But unlike the media it seemed the readers and viewers were skeptical.

The Washington Post reports that comments on the New York Magazine article doubted his authenticity.

“How dumb do you have to [be] to believe that this kid made $72M trading stocks during lunch?” wrote one.

He was quickly going viral, and was booked to appear on US cable network CNBC when he obviously realized things were spiraling out of control.

He backed out and retained a lawyer and PR firm to help him win back the situation.

In an interview yesterday with the New York Observer, hastily arranged by the new PR guy, he admitted the whole thing had been a lie.

“You seem to be quoted saying, ‘eight figures,’” The New York Observer asked Islam “That’s not true is it?”

“No, it is not true,” Islam said.

“Is there ANY figure? Have you invested and made returns at all?”

“No.”

“So, it’s total fiction?”

“Yes.”

His PR guy said “This is a 16-year-old boy who is overwhelmed by all the attention he has received and he is sorry for anyone who has been hurt by this, but in the end of the day, let’s keep things in perspective,”

“He didn’t cheat anyone. He didn’t steal anything. He’s a kid who took a story too far.”

Turns out that the media weren’t the only ones who were angry with his lies.

Islam’s lawyer, Edward Mermelstein, told The Washington Post he was back on the naughty step with his Mum and Dad.

His parents reportedly “furious “ when they saw the story.

(Grounded and no ipad for a week!)

The Washington Post says that Mo Islam did appear to have a knack for stocks but they were all simulated trades.

“At a high school investment club. With imagined revenues” writes the newspaper.

“I led the New York Magazine journalist to believe I had made even more than $72 million on the simulated trades,” Islam told The Observer.

“ All I can say is for the simulated trades, I was very successful. The returns were incredible and outperformed the S&P.”

Back to store bought apple juice for this kid.