Australian Man Receives 3-Year Sentence for Spending AU$6.07 Million in Mistaken Crypto.com Refund

The Aussie man who turned AU$100 into a AU$10.47 million windfall (using one simple trick the big banks don’t want you to know about), has now parlayed that profit into three years in prison. 

39-year-old Jatinder Singh of Melbourne was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria yesterday for an illegal spending spree, in which he burned through AU$6.07 million of his “crypto gains” on real estate, luxury goods and a AU$1 million gift to a friend. Singh’s spree began when he realised his partner, Thevamanogari Manivel, had received millions of dollars in her bank account in May of 2021.

So where did this money come from you may ask? Playing the markets? Astute management of his shitcoin portfolio? Not exactly.

The money appeared in Manivel’s bank account after Singh’s failed attempt to transfer AU$100 from Manivel’s bank account to his account on the cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com. The failure was reportedly due to a mismatch between Manivel’s bank account name and Singh’s Crypto.com account name. 

Following this failed transfer, a clerical error by a staff member at Crypto.com resulted in over AU$10 million being mistakenly refunded to Manivel’s bank account, sparking much excitement and much illegal spending.

Related: Melbourne Couple to Face Trial Over $10.4M crypto.com Blunder

Comedy of Errors Coupled with Opportunism

The court heard the huge refund happened because a Bulgaria-based Crypto.com employee had mistakenly entered Manivel’s account number, instead of $100, into the refund amount field in an Excel spreadsheet. The following day when Singh became aware of the millions of dollars in Manivel’s account, he immediately told her to transfer it to his bank account to prevent the transaction being reversed by the bank.

Remarkably—and a little worryingly—the mistake wasn’t detected by Crypto.com for a further seven months. When the error was eventually noticed in December of 2021 the exchange contacted the Commonwealth Bank and began the process of trying to recover the funds. Both the Commonwealth Bank and Crypto.com tried to contact Singh, but he claimed that he believed these were scam attempts. 

In a stunning coincidence, Singh took his spree to the next level immediately after he was first contacted about the windfall, launching into what the judge described as a “flurry” of spending in March 2022. Meanwhile, Manivel sent AU$4 million to her Malaysian bank account. 

Manivel wound up being arrested on March 7, 2022 at Melbourne airport with AU$11,000 in cash and a one-way ticket to Malaysia. Singh was arrested later the same month and claimed he thought he’d legitimately won the money in an “online lottery”.

Singh’s Splurge Sees Significant Sentence

The court heard Singh now accepts that he knew the money was not his to spend, pleading guilty to a charge of theft.

However, the judge noted that Singh continues to lack insight into his offending and still believes the primary blame lies with Crypto.com and the Commonwealth Bank for mistakenly refunding the money. The judge also added that a psychological report suggested Singh “lacks the capacity to understand complex situations and foresee the consequences of his actions”.

Related: Australian AFP Officer Allegedly Steals Nearly 82 Bitcoins Worth $6m

Singh was sentenced to three years in prison, with 361 days already served in pre-sentencing detention, meaning he will be eligible for parole in two years.

Manivel got off a little lighter with no prison sentence ordered—instead she was sentenced to time served and was placed on an 18-month community corrections order after pleading guilty to the charge of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime.