A couple in Melbourne who spent the $6.6 million mistakenly transferred by Crypto.com will face trial
ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, a couple from Melbourne inadvertently received AUD 10.5 million (approximately USD 6.6 million), and they will face a guilty plea trial for theft in October after spending the mistakenly received funds in 2021.
In May 2021, Thevamanogari Manivel transferred funds into her partner Jatinder Singh's Crypto.com account. However, the exchange detected a discrepancy between the bank account and the exchange account. Therefore, the exchange initiated a refund, but instead of returning the AUD 100 that the couple attempted to deposit, it mistakenly transferred AUD 10.5 million into Manivel's bank account, a mistake that was only discovered during the exchange's annual audit in December 2021.
After the exchange filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Victoria, the judge ruled that the funds should be returned to the cryptocurrency trading platform. However, it is alleged that the couple had already begun to spend wildly before the error was discovered. Reports indicate that the couple purchased four houses, vehicles, and many other items, and transferred approximately AUD 4 million to a Malaysian bank account.
Manivel, who was charged with theft, admitted to the crime in September 2023 and was sentenced to 18 months of community correction, including 6 months of intensive supervision and unpaid community work, after having been incarcerated for 209 days. Meanwhile, Singh will face a guilty plea trial on October 23.