Jatinder Singh and Thevamanogari Manivel were meant to get a $66 refund from the exchange — but instead, they were sent $7 million.
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A man who allegedly went on a spending spree after a fat-fingered mistake by a Crypto.com employee has been granted bail.
Thevamanogari Manivel had been due to receive a $66 refund from the exchange back in May 2021 — but instead, she was accidentally transferred close to $7 million.
As reported by CoinMarketCap Academy at the time, it took Crypto.com seven months to realize that this colossal error had been made.
By then, Manivel had allegedly given gifts to six people — including her family members — and splashed out on a plush five-bedroom home.
It's believed that a Crypto.com employee had accidentally entered a bank account number into the payments box, and the mistake was only spotted during a routine audit.
In a Melbourne court on Monday, it was claimed that Manivel's partner, Jatinder Singh, had used her bank account to buy the crypto.
However, a refund needed to be processed because the names between her bank account and his crypto exchange account didn't match.
When the seven-figure sum arrived, Singh allegedly said they had won a competition — and told her to move the cash into a joint account. It's claimed that some funds later moved offshore.
So far, about $4.9 million of this cash is said to have been recovered or frozen — and while some of the money that went offshore has been seized, $2 million is still missing.
Prosecutors feared that Singh could still have access to this cash, and told the judge that he represented an "unacceptable" flight risk because he had no family in Australia.
But the judge dismissed these concerns, and argued that Singh would be unable to leave the country as long as he surrendered his passport.
He has pleaded not guilty to theft, and the case will now go to trial.
Manivel was bailed last year.
