A 21-year-old Malaysian student living in Australia was arrested after spending most of $3.3 million that was accidentally deposited in her bank account on luxury handbags.
Chemical engineering student Christine Jiaxin Lee accidentally received a. AUD $4.6 million ($3.3 million) deposit as an overdraft in 2012, according to Daily Mail. Within a year, she spent $2.5 million of the money on luxury handbags and cash transfers.
Authorities began investigating the deposit in 2012, but an arrest warrant wasn’t filed until March of this year. Lee was arrested by Australian federal police at Sydney Airport trying to leave back to Malaysia and spent one night in jail.
The student, in her third year of school, was living in a $3,120/month sub-penthouse apartment with a view of Sydney Harbor along with her boyfriend Vincent King.
Lee was charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime. Lee’s lawyer explained to the court that most of the money was spent on expensive handbags to which the judge of the case reportedly commented, “That’s a lot of handbags.”
While Lee never notified the bank of their error, the spending of the money may not have been illegal.
“They gave it to her. But she wouldn’t necessarily have broken the law,” the judge said, adding that Lee would now have to owe the bank back the money she spent.
Good luck with that.
