Photo: Getty Images
A cryptocurrency company is trying to recover $7.2 million it mistakenly sent to a customer in Australia. Crypto.com has filed a claim against the woman, Thevamanogari Manivel, seeking to freeze her assets in an attempt to recover the funds, The Guardian reported.
Crypto.com explained that it tried to issue her a refund of $68, but somebody accidentally put her account number in the payment field.
The company didn't realize the mistake until seven months later. While the court ordered Manivel's bank accounts frozen, most of the money was gone. Manivel spent some of the money and transferred the rest to other accounts, which were also frozen.
Manivel's biggest purchase was a $1.3 million five-bedroom home, which she had transferred to her sister, Thilagavathy Gangadory, who lives in Malaysia.
The court ordered Gangadory to sell the property as soon as possible, with the proceeds going to Crypto.com. If she fails to sell the property, the court could hire a receiver to handle the sale of the house. She could also be charged with contempt of court.
"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,'" Justin Lawrence from Henderson and Ball Lawyers told 7NEWS.
"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."