Australian Woman Heads To Trial After Crypto.com Mistakenly Refunded Her $10.47M

An Australian woman who was accused of theft offenses after Crypto.com mistakenly refunded her account with $10.47 million is now heading to trial amid reports that she tried to flee the country after being released on bail.

Thevamanogari Manivel and her partner Jatinder Singh pleaded guilty to all the charges they are currently facing when they appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday. Manivel received a whopping $10.47 million from Foris GFS in May 2021 by mistake, when she was supposed to receive only a $100 refund.

The mistake was not reported and left unnoticed by Crypto.com until December during an audit. It turned out that a worker in Bulgaria who made the refund had entered the wrong numbers into an excel spreadsheet, which resulted in the blunder, Michi Chan Fores, a compliance officer at Crypto.com told the court, according to New Castle Herald.

When the refund request was processed, it was sent to a payment provider in Australia, which moved the funds into Manivel's Commonwealth Bank account. Interestingly, the Crypto.com account was in the name of her partner Singh, but the transfer was sent to Manivel's account since he used her bank to purchase crypto, the report disclosed Tuesday.

The couple claimed that the $10 million transferred to their account was a prize from a competition. However, the company representatives denied this, noting that Crypto.com did not send any notifications to inform users about competition winnings.

After receiving the funds, the couple allegedly spent the funds on various items. They purchased four houses, transferred $4 million to a bank in Malaysia, and then spent the rest on gifts, art, furniture and vehicles.

The bigger chunk of the funds has since been paid, but there is still an outstanding amount of $3 million. With the ongoing litigation, the court intends to freeze the properties and retrieve the money given to relatives.

Manivel was arrested at Melbourne Airport in March while she was allegedly trying to fly to Malaysia with a one-way ticket and around $11,000 cash. Her lawyer, Jessica Willard, applied for her bail with a $10,000 surety.