Couple Inadvertently Receives $10.5M from Crypto.com; Plea Hearing Scheduled for October
A Melbourne couple is set to face a plea trial in October for a theft charge after inadvertently receiving 10.5 million Australian dollars ($6.7 million) from Crypto.com in 2021.
The couple, who received the funds by mistake, proceeded to spend the money before the error was discovered.
The incident occurred in May 2021 when Thevamanogari Manivel made a transfer to her partner Jatinder Singh's Crypto.com account.
The exchange identified that the bank account did not match the exchange account, and thus issued a refund.
Instead of an AUD $100 ($67) refund, however, it accidentally sent AUD $10.5 million (worth over $7 million) to Melbourne-based investors.
The incident went unnoticed until December 2021 when Crypto.com conducted its annual audit.
Following the revelation, the exchange filed a lawsuit in the Victoria Supreme Court, seeking the return of the funds to the platform.
However, the couple alleged that they had already spent the bulk majority of the money.
They reportedly purchased four houses, vehicles, and various other items. Additionally, approximately 4 million AU$ were sent to a Malaysian bank account.
At the time, the court ordered the sale of one of the houses, a five-bedroom property in Craigieburn worth 1.35 million AU$, with the proceeds to be returned.
During the court proceedings in October 2022, the couple claimed that they believed they had won a prize from the crypto exchange.
Singh argued that he had received a notification about a competition from the company in the past.
However, Crypto.com's compliance officer, Michi Chan Fores, refuted any such competition, stating that the exchange did not send such notifications to its users.
In September 2023, Manivel pleaded guilty to recklessly dealing with
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