Crypto.com customer accused of $7M spending spree granted bail

Bail

The judge said that imprisonment wasn’t necessary because Jatinder Singh couldn’t flee Australia without his Indian passport.

The Crypto.com customer who was accidentally sent $6.95 million from the exchange in 2021 and then allegedly went on a spending spree has been granted bail in Australia despite $2 million funds still unaccounted for.

In the Victorian County Court, prosecutors on March 20 tried to convince the judge that imprisonment would be the only way to ensure that Jatinder Singh would not flee the country.

The blunder by Crypto.com came about when a Bulgarian-based employee accidentally transferred $6.95 million to his account instead of what was meant to be a $100 refund in May 2021. The Melbourne man is alleged to have bought four houses and a car with the funds, along with sending a portion overseas.

Prosecutors argued that Singh is financially motivated to flee the country because only $4.9 million has been recovered, according to a report from the Herald Sun.

*The theft charges of Singh and Manivel are being dealt with by the Victorian County Court. Source: Country Court of Victoria*

Of the missing $2 million, over $1.45 million is believed to have been shifted offshore to Malaysia, the court heard.

Senior Constable Conor Healy told the judge that Singh “may have access to the outstanding money that has not been recovered yet,” while prosecutor Peter Botros argued that Singh posed an “unacceptable” flight risk because he was living without a visa, had no family in Australia and was unemployed prior to his arrest.

However, Judge Daniel Holding didn’t think this was enough to put Singh behind bars. He instead explained that confiscating Singh’s Indian passport and preventing him from applying for a new one at the Indian Embassy would be sufficient:

“If there is a condition that he not have a passport or he not apply for a passport … how does he manage to flee the country?”

Singh is facing a series of theft charges alongside his partner, Thevamanogari Manivel, who is the owner of the bank account to which the funds were transferred.

Both pleaded not guilty to the charges. They continue to claim that they rightfully won the $7 million through a Crypto.com contest.

While the incident occured in May 2021, it was not discovered until an annual audit in December 2021.

The Singaporean-based cryptocurrency exchange has since launched civil action in the Victorian Supreme Court to recover the losses.

The Victoria Supreme Court h ruled that the funds must be returned to the company.

<div>ACX's parent company Blockchain Global collapses owing M</div>

ACX

Investors are worried the may not be able to recoup their funds from ACX, now that parent company Blockchain Global has entered voluntary administration.

Blockchain Global (BGL), the parent company of the now-defunct Australian crypto exchange ACX, has collapsed with outstanding debts of $15 million.

On Sept. 13, The Victoria Supreme Court placed a freeze order on 117.33 Bitcoin (BTC) —worth around $7.1 million — held by two companies behind the exchange, BGL and ACX Tech. Three days later the companies were ordered to disclose the full scope of assets held locally and abroad but failed to meet the Sept. 30 deadline.

The Australian Financial Review reported that BGL has since entered voluntary administration, with a figure of $15 million (AUD $21 million) owed to creditors. BGL’s CEO Sam Lee said said that he stepped down as a director in March 2019, but still retains ownership of the brand.

Lee downplayed his current role at BGL, noting that:

“[I] was reappointed on April 12, 2020 to deal with matters after the company cease[d] to have any operations, as there is no operations, there were no key business decisions made, debt introduced during my absence wasn’t able to be negotiated.”

Speaking on the firm’s voluntary administration, Lee again distanced himself from BGL and said that the decision from the existing directors is “in the best interest of creditors and shareholders.”

“I abstained from all decision-making after my appointment as I didn’t have enough visibility to make informed decisions,” he said.

Melbourne-based ACX suddenly shut down operations and froze user accounts in early 2020, leading to around 200 investors claiming losses of a combined $7.4 million (AUD $10 million). The platform was promptly thrown out of Blockchain Australia and its digital currency license was revoked by AUSTRAC.

While ACX investors had renewed hope of recouping their funds following the freeze order on the hard wallet, the collapse of BGL has left things much more uncertain.

“It’s gotten so confused we are left wondering what the hell is going on,” an anonymous investor said.

The administrators' report on BGL says that it holds $7.77 million (AUD $10.5 million) worth of assets, and is owed $598,907 (AUD $809,669) in unsecured debt, with only $259,620 (AUD $350,983) thought to be recoverable.

Victorian Supreme Court