Woman at centre of crypto refund blunder tried to flee, police say

A woman accused of splurging $10.5m after a cryptocurrency refund mistake has repaid millions of dollars — but police believe she first tried to flee the country.

The property Thevamanogari Manivel bought at 19 Liewah Circuit, Craigieburn. Picture: realestate.com

A woman accused of going on a spending spree with $10.5m accidentally transferred into her bank account in a cryptocurrency refund blunder has paid back $7.7m, a court has heard.

Thevamanogari Manivel and her partner, Jatinder Singh, are both accused of theft offences after they bought four houses, a $70,000 car, furniture and art with the windfall that landed in her Commonwealth account on May 12 last year.

They also gifted large sums of money to friends and family, including a $4m transfer to Ms Manivel’s sister, Thilagavathy Gangadory, in Malaysia.

Fronting Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, Ms Manivel, 40, from Dandenong North, and Mr Singh pleaded not guilty to theft offences.

They allegedly claim they thought they had won the money through a crypto.com contest.

But crypto.com Asia Pacific general manager Karl Mohan told the court the money transfer was a mistake made by one of its staff in Bulgaria.

He said the woman was meant to be processing a $100 refund to Mr Singh, who held a crypto.com account, but instead “pasted the account number of a previous transaction” in the amount field on the screen.

It was Ms Manivel’s bank details that were linked to Mr Singh’s cryptocurrency account.

Mr Mohan said the discrepancy was not brought to his attention until seven months later, in December, after the company’s financial team in Hong Kong conducted an audit and realised about $10m was missing.

They notified CBA, who in turn sent a message on Christmas Eve to Ms Manivel, through its banking app, saying it had received a request to return $10,474,143 that had been transferred to her.

The property Thevamanogari Manivel bought at 19 Liewah Circuit, Craigieburn. Picture: realestate.com

But the court heard those messages were never opened or read on the app.

The banking app was not found on Ms Manivel’s mobile phone when she was arrested at Melbourne Airport on March 17.

But it was installed on Mr Singh’s iPhone, the court heard.

Senior Constable Conor Healy, from the Mill Park divisional response unit, said police believe Ms Manivel, who has been in Australia on a student visa for six years, was allegedly attempting to flee the country when she was arrested.

She had a one-way plane ticket to Malaysia, more luggage than one would expect, and $11,750 cash on her, he said.

“It is believed she did not intend to return to Australia,” Constable Healy said.

Text messages on her phone allegedly indicated she was going home to Malaysia as her ex-husband and son had been arrested over a scrap metal theft.

Since her arrest, the court heard all of Ms Manivel’s Australian bank accounts and assets had been frozen, as crypto.com launched Supreme Court civil action to recoup the money.

Ms Manivel’s lawyer, Jessica Willard, said her client had been “largely co-operative” with the civil proceedings, which had “resolved” with a “majority of the assets” being recovered.

Constable Healy said about $8m was transacted from Ms Manivel’s CBA account from December 24, 2021 to February 7 this year.

About $7.7m has been recovered, the court heard, but $3m remains outstanding: $1m of which is in the form of assets, and $2m in offshore accounts, making it difficult to trace or recover.

Magistrate Peter Reardon determined there was sufficient evidence for Ms Manivel and Mr Singh to stand trial in the County Court.

He ordered they face the higher court for a directions hearing on November 8.

Ms Manivel indicated she would make an application for bail on Tuesday afternoon.