by Cam Lucadou-Wells
After a mistaken $10 million windfall, a disability support worker has been sentenced upon trying to flee the country with some of the proceeds.
Thevamanogari Manivel, 41, formerly of Dandenong North, pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to recklessly dealing with $4 million of proceeds of crime.
It all started with a “significant” accounting error by cypto-currency business Crypto.com on 13 May 2021.
Instead of refunding Manivel’s partner $100, a staff member typed in an account number 10474143. It resulted in $10,474,143 being transferred into Manivel’s bank account.
Discovering the overpayment, her partner told her to immediately transfer it to a joint account at a different bank.
That day, she went to a bank at Casey Central shopping centre and withdrew $10 million by bank cheque and $5000 in cash.
The bank cheque – along with $80,000 electronically – was deposited in the joint account that day.
Crypto.com didn’t realise the overpayment until an audit seven months later. By that point, the joint account was down to just over $8 million.
Manivel’s bank contacted her saying the deposit was a mistake, requesting that she return the $10 million.
Claiming she thought the message was a ‘scam’, she transferred $4 million to a Malaysian-based bank account.
In March 2022, Manivel was arrested with a one-way ticket to Malaysia and $11,750 cash attempting to board a flight at Tullamarine international airport.
Born in Malaysia, she had migrated to Australia in 2015 with a plan to save up money to sponsor her three children to join her.
To that end, she’d toiled in hard physical labour, including as a farmhand, hotel cleaner and a disability support worker. She also studied in aged care, pathology collection and community services.
In a police interview, Manivel had claimed her partner had told her he’d won the money.
In sentencing on 8 September, Judge Martine Marich said the partner’s explanation for the millions was “too good to be true – and it was not true”.
Prosecutors couldn’t prove Manivel had a “sinister intent” until she was notified by her bank of the mistake. At that point, she “yielded” into cynical self-interest to “short cut” her way to her financial goal, Judge Marich said.
The judge noted Manivel’s previously “exemplary” character with no prior criminal history and a diligent work ethic.
Most of the $4 million had since been recovered, which was “unusual” in such a case, the judge noted.
Judge Marich noted that Manivel was assessed with trauma and on anti-depressants during an “extraordinarily difficult” seven months’ stint in remand.
She also faced the possibility of deportation – though she was able to apply for a permanent visa to address Australia’s shortage of aged care workers.
Manivel was jailed for 209 days – which was already served in pre-sentence detention.
She will serve an 18-month community corrections order with “intensive compliance”.
It included 200 hours of unpaid work and mental health treatment and a night curfew all during the first six months.
