“Bank error in your favor” – this is one of the event cards in the board game Monopoly, which gamblers are particularly happy about. But that doesn’t happen in real life, does it? Yet!
Thevamanogari Manivel from Melbourne, Australia experienced exactly that. One day, she had $10.5 million more in her account. Transferred from crypto.com, one of the largest exchanges for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. An employee of the company had entered the account number in the amount field.
Manivel was actually only hoping for a repayment of around $100 from a crypto deal. But she gladly accepted the unexpected rain of money. An employee of the company had entered the account number in the amount field.
In the meantime, the error was not noticed at “crypto.com” – for a total of seven months. It was not until December 2021 that the incorrect booking amount was noticed. But all attempts to contact the enriched customer failed. Manivel ignored the requests.
Since then, the company has been fighting in court for the money – but even that is not that easy, as the details of the process that have now been published show. According to the Australian media, Manivel did not respond to the court’s inquiries and did not appear at the hearing. There was only one message from the woman’s lawyers for the court: “We have received your email.”
Finally, in February, Manivel’s account was frozen by court order. Too late, as we now know. Because part of the money had – of course – already been spent. The rest, $10.1 million, Manivel had transferred to a joint account with her sister.
The two women also bought a luxurious five-bedroom mansion for $1.5 million. Incidentally, the house officially belongs to Manivel’s sister, who actually lives in Malaysia. This is according to court documents quoted by the Australian media.
It is not yet clear whether “crypto.com” will ever get the money back. In a first judgment, an Australian court has now decided that the luxury property must be sold and that the crypto bank is entitled to the proceeds with interest. However, the judgment is not yet final. Negotiations are scheduled to resume in October.
