Melbourne sisters sued after spending $11.7m accidentally transferred into bank account

An Australian woman who spent A$10.4 million that was mistakenly transferred into her bank account has been ordered to pay it all back. Photo / 123RF

An Australian woman who spent A$10.4 million ($11.7m) that was mistakenly transferred into her bank account has been ordered to pay it all back plus 10 per cent interest as well as legal costs.

In May last year, Melbourne resident Thevamanogari Manivel was supposed to receive a A$100 ($112) refund from cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com.

Instead, the Singapore-based trading platform, which uses actor Matt Damon to spruik its products and sponsors the AFL to the tune of A$25 million ($28m) a year, made a big mistake.

They "erroneously transferred" A$10,474,143 ($11,747,641) to the customer, according to court documents.

Manivel then gifted the money to six other people, including family members such as her daughter and her sister.

During a routine audit, Crypto.com discovered the error and began legal proceedings, pulling all seven recipients of the funds into the spotlight. The woman's bank, the Commonwealth Bank, was also listed as a defendant "but no substantive final relief was sought against it".

"Extraordinarily, the plaintiffs allegedly did not realise this significant error until some seven months later, in late December 2021," the Victorian Supreme Court judge James Elliott stated.

Last Friday, the court ruled in favour of Crypto.com and ordered all the money plus more costs to be paid back, but have yet to receive a response from the defendants.

The court order means that Manivel's sister will have to sell an A$1.35 million ($1.4m) Melbourne house which was reportedly paid for entirely through the wrongful payment.

The court heard that Manivel purchased a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house in Craigieburn as a "gift" for her sister, Thilagavathy Gangadory.

Crypto.com, which trades as Foris GFS Australia Pty Ltd in Australia, began its legal fight in early February and managed to get Manivel's accounts frozen.

However, by then, most of the money had gone to Gangadory and the other defendants.

Just two weeks after her sister's assets were suspended, Gangadory became the registered proprietor of the Craigieburn Property, on February 21.

As a result, Crypto.com then sought orders for Gangadory's bank accounts to also be frozen.

The judge ordered that the property be sold.

"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," judge Elliott said as he handed down his judgment.

"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."

Not only was Gangadory forced to sell her plush new house, but she was left to foot more bills — interest for the time that she held onto the funds after court proceedings began.

There was "an order that Gangadory pay interest to the first plaintiff calculated from 1 March 2022 to the date of judgment," according to court documents …

"Applying the statutory interest rate payable on judgment debts, being 10 per cent, the sum of A$27,369.64 ($30,697) was awarded."

No representatives for Gangadory showed up at the court case.

Other orders have been made in separate cases relating to the other seven defendants and the rest of the missing money.