London Judge Hands 61,000 $BTC to the Rulebook Chinese Victims Hoped to Skip 🏛️

A London High Court ruling has sided with the UK government in a dispute over 61,000 Bitcoin seized from convicted fraudster Zhimin Qian, strengthening British authorities' grip on a haul currently worth more than $5 billion. Justice Mark Turner ruled on Monday that Chinese law, rather than English law, must govern the victims' claims to the assets, denying the claimants a legal route that could have let them argue direct ownership of the $BTC. "The relevant damage occurred in China. The Applicants parted with their money in China," Turner wrote. "The contractual relationships thereby induced were entered into in China."

The Bitcoin was seized by London's Metropolitan Police during a money-laundering investigation into an investment fraud orchestrated by Qian between 2014 and 2017. Court records show the scheme raised about RMB 40.2 billion, roughly £4.1 billion, across at least 128,409 investment contracts, with approximately RMB 34.1 billion paid back to some victims. Qian was jailed for more than 11 years in November 2025 after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering charges at Southwark Crown Court; her assistant Seng Hok Ling, also known as Jian Wen, was convicted on similar counts the previous year. The seized Bitcoin is currently valued at about $5 billion, with $BTC trading near $83,200 according to CoinGecko, though earlier reports cited a value of around $7 billion at the time of Qian's trial.

The claimants, represented by law firm Fieldfisher, had pushed for English law to apply because its trust rules can follow stolen money into assets it later bought, potentially allowing victims to trace their funds into the seized Bitcoin. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, each victim must prove a proprietary interest in the coins, and being owed money as a creditor is not enough. Turner rejected arguments for applying English law or a combination of English and Chinese law, finding that the sales pitch, the payments and the coin purchases all took place in China, and that tracing the coins in England cannot revive any property rights the victims lost under Chinese law when the original purchase occurred.

The judgment does not settle who ultimately keeps the Bitcoin, with questions about the content and proof of Chinese law reserved for a later stage. Fieldfisher said it is pursuing an appeal, and the case will remain before the High Court in London rather than being transferred to a Chinese court. The Crown Prosecution Service told the Financial Times that a further hearing would examine how Chinese law applies and whether any victims can establish an interest in the seized assets. Prosecutors have previously argued that certain claims could allow a smaller group of victims and litigation funders to recover more than their actual losses, and have suggested victims could instead be compensated through a redress scheme run from China. Law firm Candey represents about 5,700 of the more than 128,000 investors reportedly affected by the fraud.