Crypto.com has been catapulted to the limelight once more after a mishap left a customer with more than $10 million. This is not the first time that crypto exchanges would be sending users the wrong amount by accident, but one thing that stands out about this case is how long it took for the company to realize its mistake, and by the time it did, the money was long gone.
How It HappenedA report from the Herald Sun in Australia said the Australian woman who had received the money is known as Thevamanogari Manivel. According to them, Manivel had actually been expecting a refund of $100 back in May 2021 when a mistake would see her end up with more than $10 million. Further inspections showed that whoever had processed the refund had made the mistake of filling in Manivel’s phone number in place of the actual $100 refund.
What would happen was that the Australian woman needed up with $10,474,143 in her account. This happened in May, and the company realized the mistake a good seven months later, in December 2021. Manivel had not notified the crypto exchange of the error and went on the spend the money.
An audit carried out on the crypto exchange at the end of the year uncovered the error, and Crypto.com moved to recover the money. However, by the time they checked Manivel’s accounts, most of the money was gone and transferred out to different accounts.
Crypto.com had promptly taken legal action against Manivel once they learned of the error. Further digging uncovered that Manivel had actually sent $430,000 to her daughter’s account and had purchased a $1.35 million luxury 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom house.
However, it seems Manivel was expecting the company to come after her for the money as the registration for the house had been transferred to Manivel’s sister, Thilagavathy Gangadory, who resides in Malaysia. In total, Manivel had removed $10.1 million from the account, leaving only a small portion left in her account.
Crypto.com’s efforts to get Manivel to pay back the money had been futile, and they have now gone after Ms. Gangadory. After Gangadory had failed to show up in court, Judge James Dudley Elliot had ordered that the luxury home be sold and that Gangadory should pay back the crypto exchange $1.35 million with an interest of $27,369. However, Judge Elliot maintains that Gangadory could always dispute this to “set aside the default judgment.
There is no mention of Manivel’s whereabouts or if Crypto.com had been able to get in contact with her. The exchange had applied to freeze Manivel’s account, but now, most of the money is already gone.
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