- Crypto.com customer accidentally receives $6.95 million from the exchange and spends it.
- Prosecutors argue that the accused is a flight risk due to $2 million being unaccounted for.
- Judge confiscates Singh’s passport and bans him from applying for a new one.
A Crypto.com customer who accidentally received $6.95 million from the exchange and allegedly spent it has been granted bail despite $2 million unaccounted for.
In a court hearing, prosecutors argued that the only way to prevent Jatinder Singh from fleeing was to imprison him. They claimed that Singh had already shifted over $1.45 million offshore to Malaysia, making him a flight risk. However, Judge Daniel Holding decided to confiscate Singh’s passport instead of imprisoning him.
The blunder by Crypto.com $ 0.06966 -1.43% occurred when a Bulgarian-based employee mistakenly transferred $6.95 million to Singh’s account instead of a $100 refund in May 2021. The accused allegedly bought four houses and a car with the funds, as well as sending a portion overseas. Besides Singh, his partner has been charged with theft in connection with the transfer of funds to the bank account.
Singh and his partner plead not guilty to the charges and claim that they rightfully won the $7 million through a Crypto.com contest. However, prosecutors argue that Singh is financially motivated to flee the country, as only $4.9 million has been recovered. They also point out that Singh is living in Australia without a visa and has no family in the country.
Despite the missing $2 million, Judge Holding did not find Singh to be an unacceptable flight risk. Instead, he ordered the confiscation of Singh’s Indian passport and banned him from applying for a new one at the Indian Embassy. The case continues.
In other news, General Bytes, a Prague-based Bitcoin ATM maker, has disabled its cloud services owing to a security flaw. A hacker gained unauthorized access to the hot wallets of users and stole sensitive data, including passwords and private keys. Around 15,000 Bitcoin ATMs have been sold in more than 149 countries worldwide.
