Manivel and Jatinder Singh, a couple living in Melbourne, reportedly encountered an error while conducting a money transfer on the crypto exchange Crypto.com in May 2021, according to Cointelegraph’s news. The exchange noticed that Manivel’s bank account didn’t match the currency account used for the transaction. Subsequently, the exchange mistakenly made a payment of 10.5 million AU$ (6.76 million dollars) to this couple, and the incident escalated further.
The couple spent a large amount of money
Interestingly, this error was not discovered until December 2021, when the exchange conducted its annual audit. The exchange filed a lawsuit in the Victorian Supreme Court, and the court ruled that the funds should be returned to the crypto trading platform. However, things became even more complicated at this point because the couple had already spent a significant portion of the large sum of money before the error was detected.
Despite Claiming Innocence, Their Defense Didn’t Work
In October 2022, the Manivel and Singh couple defended themselves in court, claiming that they believed they had won a reward from the crypto exchange, asserting their innocence. Singh also claimed to have received a notification from the company regarding a competition in the past. However, these defenses were not sufficient to dismiss the theft charges.
Finally, Manivel admitted to spending the money that had been mistakenly sent to his account and spent 209 days in custody in relation to these charges. On the other hand, Singh is set to appear in court again for her defense hearing on October 23rd this year.
