An Australian man, Kow Seng Chai, has gone into hiding after an erroneous transfer by a crypto exchange saw him pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars. The man received $995,000 from a deposit of $99,500 after the trading platform, Rhino Trading Ltd., mistakenly added an extra zero to the funds remitted to his portfolio.

Court records showed that the erroneous transaction happened on January 25, 2024, and Rhino Trading didn’t discover the mistake till February 4. During that period, 37-year-old Chai transferred most of the money out of his account, making almost half a million dollars in profit.

Chai Withdrew Funds

Seeing his account grow mysteriously to $1.359 million, Chai decided to cash out the funds from Rhino Trading. The man converted his cryptos to Tether’s UDST and moved them slowly, hitting his daily maximum withdrawal of $100,000 for ten days.

By the time Rhino Trading, which operates the website OTCPro, discovered the error, Chai had moved $956,000 from the platform. Rhino Trading quickly blocked withdrawals from the account; however, the man had already moved about $492,000 more than he had deposited into the account.

Australian Man Blocked Contacts

OTCPro stated during the court session that it had made all efforts to contact Mr. Chai, but none had pulled through. The trading platform placed a call to the phone number the Australian man used to open his account, but the receiver said he was not Mr. Chai, nor was he the owner of the number.

Rhino Trading also tried to reach Chai via email, but he has not responded. Mr. Chai sent the funds from his company, Lotte Entreprise, with an address in Sydney, New York City. His trading account verification details showed he lived in a property in Mildura, a second address also seen in his company registration.

With a request from Rhino Trading, the court has frozen Mr. Chai’s assets and issued a restraining order preventing the Malaysian-born man from leaving Australia. Mr. Chai also didn’t show up in court during the court hearing.

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