- Crypto.com had accidentally transferred $10 million instead of $100 into an Australian woman’s account
- The exchange realized its erroneous transfer 7 months later during its annual audit and will be taking legal action against her.
Singapore-based Crypto.Com is suing a woman in Australia after accidentally refunding her $10 million instead of $100.
What Happened?
Central cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.Com has sued an Australian woman after accidentally issuing her a refund of $10 million. The woman had reportedly contacted the exchange to seek a $100 refund but was accidentally issued a refund worth $10 million.
Per Daily Mail, Crypto.Com had accidentally transferred $10 million to an Australian woman named Thevamanogari Manivel in May 2021 and had recently realized its hefty oversight when the firm conducted its yearly audit.
Per the outlet, the error took place when the firm accidentally entered the account number of the woman in the payment section of the said transaction. It took seven months for the exchange to realize its erroneous blunder which led the firm to encounter a loss of $10 million.
Moreover, instead of reporting the erroneous transfer that Manivel had received from Crypto.Com, the Australian woman went ahead and spent the refunded amount received by purchasing a lavish mansion for herself in the Melbourne suburb of Craigieburn.
On February 7, Crypto.Com had also issued freezing orders against Manivel’s bank account but the court documents revealed that Manivel had already transferred $10.1 million to a different joint account alongside transferring a separate amount of $430,000 to her daughter Raveena Viijan. In addition to this, Manivel had also transferred the ownership of the house to a Malaysia-based woman Ms. Gangadory.
Now Crypto.Com is taking legal action against Manivel and Ms. Gangadory to acquire the refunded amount of $10 million back with interest. The outlet further revealed that the exchange had filed a case in the Victorian Supreme Court in May 2021 but the judgment for the same has been announced recently.
Per the report, Justice Elliot who has been overseeing the court proceedings issued a verdict asking Ms. Gangadory to pay a sum of $1.35 million to Crypto.com alongside ordering her to sell her house to compensate for the losses encountered by the exchange.
“Judge James Dudley Elliott ordered Ms. Gangadory pay Crypto.com $1.35million, the interest of $27,369 and costs, and that the Craigieburn house be sold.” as reported by Daily Mail
This isn’t the first time when an exchange had made an erroneous transfer to a random user. Back in 2021, crypto lender BlockFi had also conducted a similar mistake where the platform had deposited Bitcoins worth millions of dollars in different user accounts.