Spending ‘flurry’ after $10m crypto mistake

A cryptocurrency enthusiast who splurged millions of dollars after mistakenly receiving a huge refund has been jailed.

Jatinder Singh, 39, was jailed for three years in the Victorian County Court on Tuesday, ending a two-year court case that generated global headlines for the significant error.

“For reasons known only to that organisation the overpayment was not discovered for many months,” Judge Martine Marich said.

“Your offending was entirely situationally motivated and you are most unlikely to offend again.”

The court was told Singh and his then partner Thevamanogari Manivel, 41, saw $10.47m land in her bank account in May 2021 after the international exchange made a “significant accounting mistake”.

Singh, who held a Crypto.com portfolio, had used Manivel’s Commonwealth Bank account to attempt to deposit $100 just days earlier, but it was rejected because the account names did not match up.

A Bulgarian-based staff member accidentally typed her account number into an Excel document instead of what should have been a $100 refund.

Singh discovered the overpayment the following day, instructing Manivel to transfer the funds to a joint account in an effort to avoid it being clawed back.

An internal audit by Crypto.com discovered the mistake seven months later in December 2021, and the company began chasing Commonwealth Bank.

Manivel was contacted several times by both Commonwealth Bank and Crypto.com but would later tell police she thought these were scam attempts.

Judge Marich said after the first contact, Singh launched into a “flurry” of spending, while Manivel transferred $4m in two payments to her bank account in Malaysia.

She was arrested at Melbourne airport on March 7, 2022, with $11,000 cash and a one-way ticket to Malaysia.

Singh was arrested later the same month, claiming he “honestly believed” he’d won the money in an online competition.

The court was told he now accepted that he knew the money wasn’t his and was sentenced on a theft charge for the $6.07m spent on property, luxury goods and a $1m gift to a friend between May 13, 2021 and March 23, 2022.

Judge Marich said Singh continued to lack insight into his offending despite pleading guilty and attributed responsibility to Crypto.com and Commonwealth Bank.

But she said he had a reduced capacity to understand complex situations and foresee the consequences of his actions as outlined in a psychological report.

“Your offending was precipitated by the most extraordinary of circumstances,” she said.

“You had not legal claim of right to the money and you were at least reckless.”

Singh was jailed for three years, with 361 days of presentence detention recognised as time served, and will be eligible for parole after serving two years.

Manivel was sentenced to time served of 209 days and placed on an 18-month community corrections order after pleading guilty to recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime in September last year.

Crypto.com, the court was told, had launched legal action to seize assets but had refused to tell prosecutors how much of the money had been recovered.