A few days ago, motorists in Dubai were intrigued and joyous after thousands of 500AED notes blew onto a busy road near Jumeirah area. It has now been found that the stunt was pulled by wealthy Arabs participating in an elite social movement — ‘Spead the Wealth Challenge.’
The trend started by ‘Je Pour Vous’, a luxury brand and social movement, is fast gaining momentum in the Middle East, where wealthy patrons do such random money drops to help strangers.
According to the organisers of the elitist charity group — Je Pour Vous, which in French means ‘I do for you,’ — rich Arabs participating in the social movement challenge each other to do these ‘money drops.’
“The rich arabs challenge each other to do these ‘money drops’ while recording it on video and posing for selfies. These are ‘selfies’ are then posted and shared exclusively within a closed circle of friends on a password protected platform,” Mitch Vandell, FounderJe Pour Vous told IBTimes India.
To participate in the Spread the Wealth Challenge, the organisers of the social movement ask its patrons to collect cash in mixed denominations and put it in a sack.
They are then supposed to empty the sack of cash from an elevated location, i.e. building, tower or using a quadcopter without advance warning, over a crowd of people in a poor urban areas.
The Spread the Wealth creators also have a special warning for participants distributing wealth in Detroit, Chicago and Mexico.
” For safety reasons, when distributing wealth in Detroit, Chicago and Mexico we strongly advise
using the ‘drive-by shooting’ method by stuffing cash in a t-shirt cannon,” it says.
The money rain mystery incident in Dubai is estimated to have involved thousands of 500 UAE Dirham notes — worth about $136 each.
Eyewitnesses had claimed that the money rain had continued for several minutes.
Watch: Raining Money in Dubai