A high-profile cryptocurrency trader who uses movie star Matt Damon in his advertising mistakenly transferred nearly $10.5 million to a Melbourne woman.
Crypto.com initiated legal action against Thevamanogari Manivel and his sister Thilagavathy Gangadory after taking seven months to realize the error.
The error occurred when the company attempted to give Manivel a $100 refund in May 2021, but entered an account number in the payment portion of the transfer.
The $10,474,143 error was discovered in a company audit just before Christmas last year.
Movie star Matt Damon (pictured) is being used to advertise Crypto.com, which mistakenly transferred nearly $10.5 million to a Melbourne woman
When Crypto.com tried to get the money back, $1.35 million had already been spent on a five-bedroom luxury house, and the rest had been moved to other accounts.
The house in the Melbourne suburb of Craigieburn, which has four bathrooms, a gym and cinema, was bought on February 3, the Herald Sun reported.
On February 7, Crypto.com issued a freezing order against Manivel’s bank account, but court documents show that $10.1 million had already been moved to another joint account and $430,000 had been transferred to her daughter, Raveena Vijian.
The house registration was then transferred to Malaysia-based Ms Gangadory before Crypto.com could take out freezing orders against her in March.
The company then took legal action in the High Court against Gangadory to recover the cost of the house plus 10 per cent interest.
The court heard that she “sought legal advice” and that her lawyers “would be in touch”, but neither she nor they turned up.
Judge James Dudley Elliott ordered Gangadory to pay Crypto.com $1.35 million, interest of $27,369 and costs, and that the Craigieburn house be sold.
Thevamanogari Manivel is said to have bought a luxury home (pictured) in the Melbourne suburb of Craigieburn after receiving a $10,474,143 wire transfer.
The Victorian Supreme Court’s Commercial Division heard the case in May, with the reasons for Justice Elliott’s judgment made available last week.
Because Ms Gangadory was not represented in court, Justice Elliott wrote that “references to the facts of this case based on such undisputed evidence are necessarily open to challenge if Gangadory ever seeks to set aside the default judgment”.
The judge added that she ‘has not responded to any of the correspondence from (Crypto.com’s) lawyers’ and that ‘the effect of not appearing is that the allegations in the claim are deemed to be admitted’.
Thilagavathy Gangadory, who failed to appear in court, has been ordered to sell the house (pictured) in Craigieburn, Victoria
Separate orders are said to have been made regarding the rest of the money that was mistakenly transferred to Manivel.
Crypto.com’s lawyers, Cornwalls Law, told Daily Mail Australia that as the matter is before the courts, it was unable to comment.
Manivel and Gangadory could not be contacted.
