The $10 Million Error: Australian Faces Jail Over Accidental Crypto.com Deposit—Here’s Why

As a seasoned analyst with decades of experience in financial markets, I’ve seen my fair share of extraordinary events – but few compare to this tale of Jatinder Singh and his accidental windfall from Crypto.com. It’s not often that an Excel spreadsheet mistake leads to millions in erroneous refunds, let alone a lavish spending spree and a stint in prison.


As a researcher, I’ve recently observed an intriguing turn of events. I myself, an Australian resident, have unintentionally stumbled upon a substantial windfall after receiving an unexpected refund from Crypto.com – one of the world’s top 13 cryptocurrency exchanges in terms of trading volume. Unfortunately, this financial fortune has landed me behind bars due to its unforeseen circumstances.

As per the report, Jatinder Singh, a 39-year-old Australian man, and his former partner, Thevamanogari Manivel, aged 41, received approximately $10.47 million from Crypto.com. This large sum was transferred due to an administrative error involving a mistake in an Excel spreadsheet by one of their Bulgarian employees.

According to local news reports, this incident occurred when the employee accidentally entered Singh’s bank account number instead of the refund amount, resulting in a significant deposit being made to their account.

The Start And The Bust

As a seasoned user of various digital platforms for financial transactions, I have encountered my fair share of unexpected hurdles and errors. One such incident occurred when I tried to deposit a modest $100 into my Crypto.com account using Thevamanogari Manivel’s bank account. To my surprise, the transaction was initially rejected due to a seemingly minor issue – mismatched account names. Although it seemed trivial at first glance, this error led to an unintended fortuitous turn of events that taught me a valuable lesson about double-checking details before proceeding with financial transactions.

In the course of my analysis, I discovered an incident where a colleague from our Bulgaria branch unintentionally inputted Manivel’s account number into an Excel file, instead of the intended $100 refund amount.

Following this incident, a deposit of $10.47 million was made into Manivel’s bank account. Upon receipt, Singh advised Manivel to move the mistakenly refunded money to their shared account, explaining that this would prevent it from being reclaimed.

After that, Singh and Manivel indulged in a significant amount of excessive spending, improperly using vast sums for property purchases, expensive goods, and substantial transactions to overseas bank accounts.

The sudden legal action brought a halt to their extravagant living, despite Crypto.com only discovering the mistake after conducting an internal review which lasted for seven months.

The $10 Million Error: Australian Faces Jail Over Accidental Crypto.com Deposit—Here’s Why

The Legal Repercussions

After the commotion caused by the authorities’ investigation, Singh was eventually taken into custody and indicted for theft, following the discovery that he had misspent $6.07 million of the missing funds. He was subsequently sentenced to a three-year prison term, underscoring the gravity of his actions. This sentence came despite his initial assertion that the money was a “winning prize from an online competition.”

In the end, Manivel encountered legal problems, yet received a sentence that included only the time he had already spent in custody, along with a probationary period of 18 months, following his confession about carelessly handling ill-gotten gains.

The court’s response highlighted the lack of insight Singh had into his wrongdoing. The Judge in charge, Marich from Victorian County Court, commented on the case, stating:

Under extremely unusual circumstances, your actions led to an offense. You didn’t have a legitimate justification for possessing the money, and your behavior, at the very least, was careless.

The report concluded by noting:

In a court hearing, it was disclosed that Crypto.com initiated a lawsuit to confiscate certain assets, yet declined to disclose the exact amount of funds they managed to retrieve from this action to the investigating authorities.

Featured image created with DALL-E Chart from TradingView

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2024-08-14 11:42