Now, a judge in southeastern Australia has ordered the sale of the property — which the woman apparently bought as a gift for her sister who lives overseas — and gave all proceeds from the sale to the crypto company.
The cautionary tale has attracted international attention, especially after it emerged that it took seven months for Crypto.com to notice the error.
Katie Gregory, a spokeswoman for Crypto.com, wrote that the company could not comment “as the matter is before the courts.”
Crypto.com is best known outside of the cryptocurrency world as the company whose name now adorns the former Staples Center in Los Angeles — and for Super Bowl commercials featuring actor Matt Damon and basketball star LeBron James pitching cryptocurrency investors as pioneers, under the label “Fortune favors the brave.”
it laid off 5 percent of the corporate workforce in June amid a broad decline in the cryptocurrency market.
The Victorian Supreme Court heard that in May 2021, Crypto.com, which operates under a different company name in Australia, mistakenly transferred about $7.2 million to Thevamanogari Manivel instead of the refund of about $68 it was due. The error occurred when an employee accidentally filled in the payment amount field with an account number, the court said.
“Extraordinarily, the plaintiffs allegedly did not realize this significant error until approximately 7 months later, at the end of December 2021,” during an audit, the court said in its ruling. In February, after reviewing what happened, the company sought to place a freeze on Manivel’s accounts to recover the full amount, according to the court history of the case.
However, Crypto.com presented evidence showing that Manivel had already transferred most of the money to an account held jointly with another defendant, who may have been in a “romantic relationship” with Manivel, according to evidence heard by court. Manivel also sent about $300,000 to her daughter and in February, she bought a property in Craigieburn worth $925,000 for her sister, Thilagavathy Gangadory, who lives in Malaysia.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom residence, about 20 miles north of Melbourne, sits on more than 5,800 square meters of land and features a private cinema, a gym and parking for two cars, according to Australian website realestate.com.au.
Attorneys for Manivel and Gangadory were not listed in the court filing.
Since then, Crypto.com’s Australian companies have been embroiled in a lawsuit against Manivel, Gangadory and six other defendants. In May, Judge James Dudley Elliott issued a default judgment in the case against Gangadory – meaning she did not file a notice of appearance by the court’s deadline. So Elliott ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Foris GFS Australia Pty Ltd., which helps operate Crypto.com’s trading platform in Australia.
The company’s lawyers were apparently unable to reach Gangadory, the court said, although she seemed aware the case was ongoing because her sister’s lawyers said in March that Gangadory was seeking legal advice.
According to the judge’s ruling, published last week, Foris GFS was awarded all proceeds and interest from the sale of the Craigieburn property. Gangadory was ordered to pay the company’s legal costs related to the case, as well as 10 percent interest, amounting to nearly $19,000, the court said.
Gangadory can appeal, but she must provide “a good reason for not filing documents, a valid defense to the case and give reasons why the court should not have made the order” against her, according to the Victoria County Court. The next court date is October 7, when the judge will determine the next steps in the case at what is known as a “directions hearing.”
