Australian Accidentally Receives $6.7M from Crypto.com and Faces Legal Action

An Australian man’s windfall due to an accounting mishap by Crypto.com led to him being slapped with theft charges, as highlighted by the Guardian.

In a fortunate turn of events, Jatinder Singh was mistakenly credited nearly 10.5 million Australian dollars (AUSD) by Crypto.com. However, his luck may be running out as he is scheduled to face theft charges in court next month, as per the Guardian.

Singh is set for a plea hearing on Oct. 23 in the County Court of Victoria, Australia, after failing to report the unexpected AUSD 10.47 million (approximately $6.7 million) deposit from Crypto.com in 2021. Using the funds, which landed in his account due to an oversight, Singh made lavish purchases, including four properties, vehicles, art pieces, and other luxury items, as the Guardian detailed.

The blunder arose when an employee at Crypto.com mistakenly keyed in Singh’s account number on a company worksheet monitoring customer reimbursements, the Guardian stated. This substantial error came to light for the company in December 2021, a full seven months after the incident.

Singh had previously tried to deposit funds into his Crypto.com account in 2020 via his partner, Thevamanogari Manivel’s bank account. This transaction was declined by Crypto.com, leading them to process a refund of roughly AUSD 64 to Singh since the names on the bank and Crypto.com accounts did not align.

Singh became privy to the accidental generous deposit a day post its occurrence. Recognizing the error, he directed Manivel to shift a significant amount of this sum into a shared Westpac account and further sent AUSD 4 million to a Malaysian bank account.

Following a guilty plea to theft, Manivel was handed an 18-month prison term. Singh’s plea intentions remain to be seen.