Australian Man Disappears After Receiving $500,000 in Crypto by Mistake

Kow Seng Chai, an Australian man, has become the center of a legal drama after vanishing with approximately $500,000 in cryptocurrency, mistakenly credited to his account by Rhino Trading Pty Ltd, the operator of the OTCPro trading platform.

The mishap occurred when the trading platform intended to deposit $99,500 into Chai’s account but erroneously added an extra zero, inflating the sum to a staggering $995,000.

Despite multiple attempts by Rhino Trading to contact Chai for the return of the funds, their efforts proved fruitless, leading to legal action by the company to freeze Chai’s assets and prevent him from leaving Australia.

Costly error

The error came to light when it was discovered that Lotte Enterprise Pty Ltd, a business owned by Chai, had withdrawn significant sums in the form of Tether, a stablecoin cryptocurrency pegged to the U.S. dollar, aiming to mitigate the volatile nature of digital currencies.

By the time Rhino Trading rectified the mistake, Chai had already siphoned off nearly $956,000 from his account, leaving the company with a loss of nearly $500,000 after accounting for the remaining balance.

This incident shows the fragile nature of cryptocurrency transactions: A simple clerical error can result in substantial financial consequences.

Luck and theft

This incident is not isolated in the world of cryptocurrency trading. A similar case emerged over a year ago when Crypto.com accidentally transferred $10.5 million to a Victorian woman, Thevamanogari Manivel, due to a clerical error. Believing the massive windfall was a contest prize, Manivel and her partner, Jatinder Singh, embarked on a spending spree, purchasing real estate and luxury items.

A Victorian judge expressed significant concerns about proceeding with the sentencing of Jatinder Singh, who pleaded guilty to stealing $6.09 million in a cryptocurrency error but denies the intent to steal, causing disarray in court. Despite Singh’s guilty plea, the judge questioned the sincerity of his remorse and suggested he might need independent legal advice on potentially changing his plea due to the conflicting nature of his statements.