Crypto.com Won Legal Battle Following $10.5m Wrongful Payment

A popular cryptocurrentcy trading platform accidentally transferred millions of dollars to an Australian woman and failed to notice the error for seven months.

Wrongful Refund Made Someone Millionaire

Crypto.com, operating as Foris GFS in Australia, made the error while processing a $100 refund in May 2021 and instead of the refund amount, transferred to Thevamanogari Manivel from Melbourne $10.5 million.

The cryptocurrency trading platform noticed the error seven months later during an audit and attempted to recover the money that was lost after its representative accidentally entered the customer’s bank account in the payment amount field by launching legal action in the Victorian Supreme Court.

The proceedings against Manivel began in February this year after the exchange made some inquiries with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and then sought freezing orders for her bank account and her assets to the amount of the wrongful payment.

The court heard that immediately after receiving the wrongful payment, Manivel transferred $10.1 million to a joint account and at the end of January this year transferred $430,000 from the joint account to her daughter Raveena Vijian.

The following month, using funds from both the joint account and her daughter’s account to buy a $1.35 million four-bedroom property in Cragieburn in Melbourne’s north on behalf of her sister Thilagavathy Gangadory, who resides in Malaysia. The property purchase was meant to be a gift and Gangadory became its registered proprietor.

Recovering the Property Investment Funds

After receiving freezing orders against Manivel’s sister, Crypto.com’s solicitors made numerous attempts to service Gangadory but could not as she had never responded to their emails. However, Gangadory replied to an email from Manivel’s solicitors and this email was enough for the court to assume that she was served by a substituted service order.

Considering Crypto.com’s declaration of relief, the Victorian Supreme Court ruled that the Cragieburn property should be sold and the proceeds of the sale should go to the cryptocurrency exchange operator.

In addition, the court ruled that Gangadory should pay to the plaintiff the legal costs for the case and interest from March 2022 until the ruling date, applying the statutory interest rate payable on judgment debts, amounting to $27,369.64.