Woman goes on spending spree after crypto company accidentally sends her $10.5 million

Most of us have fantasized about going on the odd spending spree, and that is exactly what woman did when she was accidentally sent $10.5 million.

Now, in a situation like this, most of us would probably hold off on spending the money until we legitimately know it was ours, but not Thevamanogari Manivel.

The mum from Melbourne became an accidental multi-millionaire in May 2021 when she attempted to process a mere $100 refund, but the Cryptocurrency company, Crypto.com, made a mistake and sent her a small fortune instead.

Instead of questioning the money, Manivel went on a lavish spending spree, and she got away with it until December 2021, when the company realized their massive error.

But unfortunately for her, she was unable to give back everything that had been sent in error as she'd already spent a large portion of the $10.5 million AUSD.

The spending spree began with a $1.35m million property in the Melbourne suburb of Craigieburn after $10.1 million was transferred into a joint account with her sister, Thilagavathy Gangadory.

The home was reportedly bought as a present for Manivel's sister, as you do.

They then went on to live a life most of us could only dream of until it all came tumbling down just over six months later.

As well as purchasing the home for her sister, Manivel also gave a large sum of money to her daughter.

Then, following a lengthy legal battle, Crypto.com won part of their legal case against Manivel, who was ordered to sell the home and return the funds - plus interest - to them.

Justice James Dudley Elliott said in his ruling: "It is established that the Craigieburn property was acquired with funds traceable to the wrongful payment and would never have been in Gangadory’s hands if the wrongful payment had not been made.

"Thus, Gangadory was unjustly enriched by receiving the purchase price of the Craigieburn property out of the wrongful payment.

"Accordingly, I was satisfied that the orders relating to the sale of the Craigieburn property were appropriate."

Justin Lawrence of Henderson and Ball Lawyers told 7NEWS: "There's no doubt that if you saw that in your account you would know it shouldn't be there, and the onus is actually on you to actually call the sender and to say look that shouldn't have come into my account.

"If you're withholding property of someone else you're effectively holding property by deception, you're not entitled to it, you need to give it back."

Topics: Money

Emma Guinness