KUALA LUMPUR — The Malaysian who withdrew A$4.6 million after she was mistakenly granted unlimited credit by an Australian bank claimed she thought her parents deposited the funds for her use.
According to an affidavit filed in the case against Christine Jiaxin Lee, the student provided the explanation for the massive withdrawals when she was contacted by the bank over the error.
“My parents give me lots of money,” she reportedly said in the conversation with the bank officer, according to a Sydney Morning Herald report on Sunday (May 22).
“My mother is coming over to visit me in June and will give the bank a cheque … I have (told my parents about it) and they are not very happy with me.”
Lee, 21, was charged in Waverley Local Court this month with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage through deception and knowingly dealing with criminal proceeds.
The criminal charge was the culmination of Australian bank Westpac’s bid to declare the Malaysian bankrupt and recover funds she was unwittingly allowed to withdraw due to a clerical error.
According to court documents cited in the Sydney Morning Herald report on Sunday, Lee opened the account in 2012, in which her parents made regular deposits for her studies at the University of Sydney.
The documents showed Lee first made an overdraft in July 2014 for A$3,454, believed to be for rent, but repaid this soon after.
When two subsequent overdrafts for the same amounts went through without challenge, however, Lee stopped repayments.
She also began transferring increasing large sums to a Paypal account.
Deposits from her parents also stopped around the same time.
Between July 2014 and April last year, Lee allegedly made numerous withdrawals totalling A$4.6 million, reportedly spending A$85,000 a week on designer clothes and handbags.
Lee also allegedly hid A$1.3 million by moving A$33,000 a week into private accounts at banks not connected to Westpac, using deposits small enough to not invite scrutiny. The other A$3.3 million is believed to be spent.
Westpac and Lee had been locked in a legal case over her withdrawals, and Australian police issued an arrest warrant after she ceased attending hearings and became incommunicado in March.
The student was arrested this month while attempting to board a flight from Sydney to Malaysia. She is currently being held at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre there. THE MALAY MAIL ONLINE
