A WOMAN is being sued by Crypto.com after she received $10.5 million by accident and then allegedly went on a spending spree.
Thevamanogari Manivel from Melbourne, Australia asked for a $100 refund from the crypto platform in May 2021 but instead received $10.5 million.
A Crypto.com employee had mistakenly entered an account number in the payment section and sent the money.
Manivel then allegedly transferred the money into other accounts following the error and went on a spending spree.
She splashed out £800,000 on a five-bedroom, four-bathroom house as a gift for her sister, Thilagavathy Gangadory.
The rest of the wrongful payment was then sent to six other people, including her daughter and sister.
Her luck came to an end in December 2021, more than six months after she received the payment, when the mistake was noticed during a routine audit.
Crypto.com uncovered the error and started legal proceedings, which resulted in her being ordered to pay back every penny with interest.
The legal battle started in February 2022 and Ms Manivel’s accounts were frozen – but most of the money was already gone.
Two weeks later, her sister’s bank accounts were also frozen.
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Victorian Supreme Court judge James Elliott said: “Extraordinarily, the plaintiffs allegedly did not realise this significant error until some seven months later.”
Mr Elliott added: “It is established that the Craigieburn property was acquired with funds traceable to the wrongful payment and would never have been in Gangadory’s hands if the wrongful payment had not been made.
“Thus, Gangadory was unjustly enriched by receiving the purchase price of the Craigieburn property out of the wrongful payment.
“Accordingly, I was satisfied that the orders relating to the sale of the Craigieburn property were appropriate.”
