Bitcoin ($BTC) – $10 Million Oops! Fortune did not favor the brave, but a Crypto.com blunder favored this woman
Thevamanogari Crankshafta Melbourne, Australia-based user of Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com requested a refund from the company in the sum of $100 in May 2021, when Bitcoin BTC/USD ebbed and flowed between $32,700 and $59,000.
What she received in return will appear to investors as a gain of 10,474,043%. But for Manivel, it simply appeared to be $10,474,143. Now Crypto.com is trying to get the money back.
What happened: According to the Victorian Supreme Court judgment in the Manivel case, the unfortunate mistake was an accounting error.
“Instead of refunding $100.00 as intended, $10,474,143.00 was mistakenly transferred (the “Merged Payment”) to Manivel after an account number was accidentally entered in the payment amount field by a representative of the second plaintiff,” it said in the judgment.
Read More: ‘Crypto Safe Haven’ Singapore Considers New Rules That Will Make It Harder To Trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin
It took Crypto.com an incredible seven months to discover the erroneous payment. It was only at the company’s annual audit on 23 December that the missing millions were found.
But it was already too late. Manivel used the money to enrich her life and the lives of her family without disclosing to Crypto.com that she had received it.
Manviel moved $10 million of the assets into a joint account she and her sister Thilagavathy Gangadory owned in May 2021, not long after the faulty transfer.
Read more: $100M Dormant Bitcoin (BTC) from the Satoshi Era Mysteriously Moved
Later, $430,000 was given as a gift Raveena VijianManivel’s daughter.
In February 2022, Manivel bought a property located on 19 Liewah Circuit, Craigieburn, Australia at a price of $1,350,000. She then transferred the registration to Gangadory.
According to realestate.com.au, the home was built in 2021 and has four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Despite an email reply that she would contact the court, Gangadory did not appear. According to The Bitcoinist, “after Gangadory failed to appear in court, Judge James Dudley Elliot ordered that the luxury home be sold and that Gangadory pay back $1.35 million to the crypto exchange with interest of $27,369.”
Why it matters: The discovery of the missing funds follows the crypto crash, which saw many companies file for bankruptcy due to severe liquidity problems. In June, Crypto.com fired 260 (5%) employees as a result of market conditions. This came after the business spent more than $1.2 billion on various advertising, including Matt Damon’s “Fortune favors the brave” commercial which was broadcast in 20 countries.
The company also bought the naming rights to the Staples Center in Los Angeles and renamed it “Crypto.com Arena.”
In January 2021, hackers stole $34 million from the crypto platform, affecting 483 of its users.
The cryptocurrency sector has experienced payment errors in the past. In May 2021, BlockFi — which recently entered into an agreement to be acquired by Sam Bankman-Frieds FTX – inadvertently deposited millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin into numerous customer accounts.
Staff accidentally processed payments in Bitcoin instead of the stablecoin USDC.
