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- 1 In March 2022, a Malaysian woman was arrested due to charges of fraud.
- 2 Evidently, it was a mistake made by Crypto.com. However, the woman was found taking advantage of it.
- 3 She has already spent time in custody and is going to face more corrective actions.
In March 2022, an incident at the Australian airport went largely unreported. Maybe some news websites covered it. But it still remained an unknown incident for the rest of the crypto space.
A Full-Blown Account Of The Incident
Josh Taylor reported in the Guardian about the arrest that relates to the crypto space. Thevamanogari Manivel is a Malaysian woman who has been rounded up by the police. At the time of arrest, she was carrying a one-way ticket to Malaysia along with $11,000 cash. And the reason is traced back to a chain of events that happened a year ago.
Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency exchange, transferred over $10 million into Manivel’s Commonwealth Bank account. As per the firm, it was a mistake which they came to know about seven months later. While doing the internal audits, the exchange discovered this blunder from their side. But they dragged Manivel into the court and she was found guilty.
Even after pleading guilty, the court sentenced her to 18 months of community service. Also, she had to serve an additional six months of intensive compliance and unpaid community work. Notably, she had already spent 209 days in custody. The Guardian highlighted Crypto.com’s mistake and it gained global attention too. Moreover, it happened during a period in which the market experienced high volatility.
In 2015, Manivel fled to Australia to escape an abusive husband. She also had plans to bring her three children to land down under. During her stint, she worked as a disability support worker and as a motel cleaner. In 2020, Manivel met an aspiring Indian cryptocurrency investor. His name was Jatinder Singh and he helped her open an account on Crypto.com.
Post that, he tried to transfer money using Manivel’s bank account. Crypto.com rejected the transfer on the grounds of credentials mismatch. It said that the name on the bank account didn’t match the one on the exchange’s account. But then, a Burgaria-based worker processed the transfer by mistake while issuing a refund. Maninder saw that the funds were in the account and suggested that they be transferred elsewhere.
Manivel transferred the funds to a joint account of the Westpac Bank. As per the Guardian report, some assets and cash were recovered at the time of the arrest. It included $4 million in a Malaysian account and four houses. When Crypto.com unearthed this blunder, it started the efforts to retrieve the money. They contacted Manivel but she ignored all communications from the Commonwealth Bank.
She thought that they were scams. Manivel was charged with theft. She pleaded guilty to the manipulation done at her end earlier this month. What followed was a series of punitive actions taken against her. Judge Martine Marich, noted that Manivel’s actions were illicit when she tried to avoid the bank. She also pointed out that the legal proceedings have complicated the visa process.
Manivel is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Science in Australia right now. She has ended the relationship with Singh who has pleaded guilty too. People in the crypto community are taking this incident as a precedent. It’s ultimately the individual who’ll suffer not the company.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast, with a major in macroeconomics and minor in business statistics. She believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks, and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning. She frequently researches, and posts content on the top altcoins, their theoretical working principles and technical price predictions.
