Australian Prosecutors Seek Jail Time for Crypto User Who Spent $7 Million by Mistake

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Hey folks.

Prosecutors in Australia are pushing a jail sentence forJatinder Singh who accidently received around $7 million USD from the crypto exchange crypto.com. He reportedly spent most of it before the fault was discovered. The issue underlines the surging issue of crypto related crime in Australia.

Crypto.com which is one of the popular crypto exchanges, back in May 2021 mistakenly sent 10.47 million AUD to Singh and his partner. They were expecting a much smaller refund of AUD 100. The mistake occurred because an employee at Crypto.com fed the wrong number into the spreadsheet.

In December 2021, when the exchange realized the error, they noticed that the bank account details didn't match their own records. By then, the individual has already spent a large part of the money. Several homes he bought and gave $1 million AUD to a friend.

On August 2, 2024, in a court hearing, Australian Prosecutor Campbell Thomson asserted that a prison sentence was important due to the remarkable amount of money involved. He stated that the case was beyond the usual scope of a "crime of opportunity". According to Thomson, Singh might not face a long sentence, especially taking into consideration the time he has already spent in detention.

Martin Kozlowski, Singh's attorney, countered that Singh was unaware of the seriousness of the situation. The money originated from a multinational corporation, which Kozlowski noted only found out years later. He made the argument that it's difficult to foresee how someone might respond in such an odd circumstance.

Prosecutors worried that Singh might try to escape the country since only $4.9 million dollars of the total amount had been recovered, with some of the money already sent abroad.

Next month, Singh is set to be sentenced. Meanwhile, Singh's partner already had been sentenced to about seven months in prison in September 2023. He is placed on an 18 month community corrections order after pleading guilty to handling the stolen funds recklessly.

According to the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) there has been a surge in criminal activities that involve crypto. A recent report by AUSTRAC underlined that the anonymity and speed of the crypto transactions make it a popular choice for illegal activities.

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