The exterior of the Crypto.com Arena on January 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California.
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It took seven months for Matt Damon attested Crypto.com realized it had accidentally sent AU$10.5 million (about $7.1 million at today’s exchange rates) to a woman in Australia, instead of a $100 refund Australia she requested. Now, the crypto trading platform is chasing Melbourne-based Thevamanogari Manivel and her sister, Thilagavathy. Gangadory, for its money – along with 10% interest and legal fees.
Court documents shows that in May 2021, an employee of the Singapore-based exchange entered the wrong account number in the payment amount field. Crypto.com realized they had accidentally sent Manivel millions of dollars in December 2021 when it was doing a routine check.
According to the filing, Manivel spent around AU$1.35 million on an incidental property.
While cryptocurrency transactions cannot be reversed, centralized platforms can theoretically reverse payments in the event of fraud or error. But in this case, the company didn’t discover the error until seven months later, after some of the money was said to have been transferred or spent. The company convinced authorities to freeze Manivel’s bank account in February, but she passed the money on to other defendants named in the case, according to the filing.
The judge ruled in Crypto.com’s favor and the case will go to court in October, where a judge will decide next steps in the case.
The lawsuit comes at a difficult time for the platform. In June, The company has laid off 260 employeesor 5% of its workforce, and have reported to have experienced a second round of aggressive cutsas crypto companies worldwide look to cut costs with investors pivoting away from the riskiest assets, pulling trading volumes down.
Bitcoin and ether are both down more than 58% this year, while rising The crypto market has fallen below $1 trilliondown from $3 trillion at its November 2021 peak.
Meanwhile, Crypto.com faces some huge payouts going on, including $700 million, multi-year naming rights agreement to the Staples Center in Los Angeles, home to the Lakers and WNBA’s Sparks.
“As the matter is in court, we are unable to comment,” Crypto.com told CNBC in an email.
