Couple which mistakenly received 10 million from crypto company tried to board flight just before arrest
Last Updated on 6 November 2023 by CryptoTips.eu
The details about the famous ‘typo’ by Crypto.com that resulted in a transfer of 10 million (Australian) dollars to a migrant couple are finally known in full now that the two had to appear in court. It appears likely a movie will be made about this story at some point as it is truly hilarious.
Fat finger
In the world of finance, a typo that results in an incorrect order being submitted is called a ‘fat finger’, usually because instead of buying or selling 10,000 shares, a certain company suddenly buy or sells 100,000, with all consequences that entails.
What happened to Crypto.com in 2021, however, was unprecedented. Their intern pasted an account number twice into his Excel file, once as the correct account number and once as an amount to be transferred. The result was that an Australian immigrant couple received 10 million in their account instead of the 100 Australian dollars they were entitled to.
On top of this, as crypto experienced an incredible bull market in 2021, it took about 7 months before Crypto.com discovered the error during an audit. We already told you the first part of this story in 2022, when the woman of the couple was originally arrested.
Now that they have finally appeared in court and the details are known, the couple (Jatinder Singh and Thevamangari Manivel) can probably count on interest from Hollywood given their explanation for what happened to them afterwards.
Prize
They both stated that at first they thought they had won a prize of some sort. After all, the money was transferred when Bitcoin was trading at a record price of around \$69,000 and so they assumed they invested very well, or so they told the Australian judge.
As they didn’t hear anything from Crypto.com, they used the crypto funds to first buy a villa in Malaysia and later also an apartment in Australia. The apartment was sold just a few months later without them ever living there. The profits were transferred to their bank account.
After receiving several letters from Crypto.com lawyers, the woman tried to withdraw as much cash as possible from her bank account and book a plane ticket to Malaysia. She was eventually arrested at the airport with 11,000 Australian dollars in cash in her bag.
The judge sentenced her to the return of the money and spend 200 days in prison.
