The parents and sister of a trader who killed himself after trading app Robinhood told him he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars are suing the company, saying it played a role in his death, reported MarketWatch. The day trader, Alex Kearns, conducted an options trade last summer that he believed would generate no more than $10,000 in losses if the deal turned sour; he was later informed by Robinhood that he in fact lost $730,000 and had to immediately deposit $178,000. What the app did not tell him was that he already held enough options to erase the negative balance once the deal settled. Believing there was no way to pay the sum he didn't actually owe, and getting nothing but silence from the company's customer support, he ended his own life shortly after. In his note he lamented that a 20-year-old with no trading experience could have access to that much leverage.

The very next day Robinhood sent an email to his account saying the margin call had been made and he did not owe anything.

The suit says Robinhood preys on inexperienced traders by making it too easy for them to make huge, complex deals while, at the same time, offering little customer support, an accusation that has been leveled against the company numerous times before.