Thevamanogari Manivel, Jatinder Singh accused of $10m crypto theft

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A Mel­bourne cou­ple alleged­ly splurged more than $10m of mis­tak­en­ly paid cryp­tocur­ren­cy on lux­u­ry hous­es, fur­ni­ture and art despite being urged to pay it back, a court has been told.

The­va­manog­a­ri Maniv­el and her part­ner Jatin­der Singh are await­ing tri­al in Victoria’s Coun­ty Court on theft charges that alleged­ly result­ed from a bun­gled trans­fer from exchange com­pa­ny Crypto.com.

The cou­ple may not even go to tri­al until after March next year.

Dur­ing a brief direc­tions hear­ing on Tues­day, the court was told staff from Crypto.com would need to give evi­dence at any future tri­al date, as much of the evi­dence would hinge on their com­mu­ni­ca­tions with Mr Singh.

“We envis­age a lot, if not most, of the bank­ing evi­dence can be done by admis­sion,” pros­e­cu­tor Dami­an Ell­wood said.

Indict­ments against the pair were like­ly to be pre­sent­ed in Feb­ru­ary, he said.

Police allege the mas­sive wind­fall was trans­ferred to Ms Maniv­el after she was sup­posed to receive a $100 refund from Crypto.com in May last year.

Instead of return­ing the mon­ey, pros­e­cu­tors allege she and her part­ner went on a spend­ing spree, buy­ing mul­ti­ple hous­es and lux­u­ry items like a car, fur­ni­ture and art.

One of the homes was worth about $1.35m.

Ms Maniv­el and Mr Singh have both plead­ed not guilty to theft, while Ms Maniv­el also plead­ed not guilty to a count of neg­li­gent­ly deal­ing with the pro­ceeds of crime.

On Tues­day, Mr Ell­wood said com­mu­ni­ca­tions between Crypto.com and Com­mon­wealth Bank Aus­tralia – alleged­ly used to with­draw the mon­ey – would be “essen­tial” to the case.

He said the bank was “ini­tial­ly unhap­py” to pro­vide the admin­is­tra­tive records to police but they have since been secured.

Ms Maniv­el and Mr Singh will return to court on March 21, 2023, for a fur­ther direc­tions hearing.

Read relat­ed top­ics:Mel­bourne

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