Family go on spending spree after they're given $10.4 million instead of $100 refund
Topics: Australia, Money, World News, Cryptocurrency
Daisy Phillipson
Featured Image Credit: Drazen Zigic/Barry Plant/Gladstone Park
Topics: Australia, Money, World News, Cryptocurrency
If you received a $10.4 million refund instead of the $100 you were expecting, what would you do?
Well, one Australian woman and her family decided their luck was in and rather than questioning the transaction, they went on a big old spending spree splashing the cash on a whole multitude of extravagant expenses.
But unfortunately for Thevamanogari Manivel and her sister, they may've not questioned the amount they were refunded - but others eventually did.
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In May 2021, the Melbourne resident was expecting to receive the $100 return from cryptocurrency exchange platform Crypto.com.
However, in what's a pretty big error to say the least, the platform - which had Matt Damon in a commerical - accidentally returned over $10m.
And when faced with the ultimatum of whether to let the company know it'd made a mistake, or simply keep quiet, hope no one realises and splurge the cash, Manivel chose the latter.
However, she didn't just keep the money all to herself, instead handing it out to a number of friends and family members - including her daughter and her sister, Thilagavathy Gangadory.
She even splashed out on a $1.35 million mansion for Gangadory, which featured four bedrooms, four bathrooms and a home gym and cinema.
They were able to live the life of Riley for seven months until a routine audit in December when Crypto.com realised what had happened.
In February 2022, the company began legal proceedings, which included freezing Manivel’s accounts – but by this point it was too late.
She had already transferred most of the money to a different joint account and another significant sum was handed to her daughter.
Freezing orders were then carried out on Gangadory after it was revealed that she had become the registered owner of the flashy Craigieburn property.
When Manivel's sister and her legal team failed to show up at the Victorian Supreme Court last year, the court ruled in favor of Crypto.com and Justice James Dudley Elliott ordered Manivel's sister to pay back the full cost of the house - plus interest - to the tune of $1.35 million plus $27,369 - the house later sold for $1.27 million.
Manivel was later arrested in March 2022, caught by police trying to board a plane to Malaysia from Melbourne airport with around $11,000 in cash.
She spent 209 days in custody and was sentenced earlier this year in September, pleading guilty to recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime, receiving an 18-month community corrections order with six months' intensive compliance and unpaid community work, according to The Guardian.
According to The Age, over $8 million of the money was returned by Manivel and the case settled with Crypto.com.
Judge Martine Marich reflected in her sentencing of Manivel that the mom hadn't exhibited malicious intent before she was informed of the error, however, at that point Manivel was told her 'behaviour turn[ed] cynical' and 'motivated by self interest'.
The judge resolved: "It represented a shortcut to the financial goal that you had previously endeavoured to pursue through your sheer hard work."
A spokesperson for Crypto.com told the Guardian Australia: "Like any company operating in financial services, we are constantly advancing and evolving our internal processes to ensure the highest levels of security and compliance.
"This includes updates to our refund and withdrawal systems following this incident."