Erroneous Crypto.com Refund Leads to Theft Charges for Australian Man, Reports The Guardian

An Australian man, Jatinder Singh, is set to face theft charges in court next month after he inadvertently received approximately 10.5 million Australian dollars (AUSD) from Crypto.com. Singh is scheduled for a plea hearing on October 23 at the County Court of Victoria in Australia. This follows his failure to report the receipt of AUSD 10.47 million (about $6.7 million) from Crypto.com in 2021, which was attributed to an accounting error. Singh used the funds, sent due to the mishap, to make various purchases including four houses, cars, artwork, furniture, and more.

The accounting blunder took place when a Crypto.com employee mistakenly inputted Singh's account number into a company spreadsheet tracking customer refunds. The error went undetected for seven months until its discovery in December 2021.

In an attempt to transfer funds into a Crypto.com account in 2020, Singh utilized his partner Thevamanogari Manivel's bank account. However, the transaction was rejected, prompting Crypto.com to issue a refund of around AUSD 64 due to a name mismatch between the bank account and Crypto.com account.

Upon realizing the significant overpayment, Singh promptly directed his partner to move a substantial portion of the funds to a joint Westpac account. Additionally, he transferred AUSD 4 million to a bank account in Malaysia.

Manivel, Singh's partner, received an 18-month sentence after pleading guilty to theft. It remains uncertain whether Singh will choose to plead guilty in this case.

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