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What happened? An Australian court has decided to release on bail Jatinder Singh, a Crypto.com user who mistakenly received $6.95 million from the platform in 2021. According to the judge, the defendant’s imprisonment is not necessary, since he will not be able to flee from Australia to another country without his Indian passport, Cointelegraph reports.
News on the Cointelegraph website
Case details. In May 2021, an exchange employee from Bulgaria accidentally transferred $6.95 million instead of $100 to Singh’s account. With these funds, Singh allegedly bought four houses and a car, and sent part of the money abroad. Prosecutors say Singh should not have been released on bail because he is financially motivated to flee. So, to date, only 4.9 million dollars have been returned, and the fate of the missing 2.05 million remains unknown. Law enforcement officials suggest that Singh transferred more than $1.45 million to Malaysia through offshore companies.
Chief Constable Conor Healey told the judge that Singh could still have access to the unreturned funds, while prosecutor Peter Botros said there was an unacceptable risk of flight because before his arrest Singh lived without a visa, had no family in Australia and was unemployed.
However, Judge Daniel Holding did not consider the arguments sufficient for a conclusion. It ordered that Singh’s Indian passport be confiscated and that he be banned from applying for a new passport at the Indian Embassy.
Singh is accused of a series of thefts along with his wife Tewamanogari Manivel, the owner of the bank account into which the funds were transferred. Both have pleaded not guilty and continue to claim that they honestly won millions of dollars in the Crypto.com contest.
Although the incident occurred in May 2021, it was only discovered during the annual audit in December 2021. The exchange then filed a civil suit in the Supreme Court of Victoria for damages.
A similar amount, instead of returning $100, was received by another resident of Australia in the same month. With the funds received, she and her sister bought a mansion in Craigieburn, which the court later ordered to be sold to return the company’s funds.
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