China Seeks to Confiscate 61,800 Bitcoin Tied to $5.7 Billion Ponzi Scheme Run by UK-Jailed Qian Zhimin

Chinese prosecutors have filed to confiscate more than 61,800 Bitcoin and a range of other assets linked to a 40.38 billion yuan ($5.7 billion) investment fraud orchestrated by Qian Zhimin, the alleged controller of Tianjin Lantian Gree Electronic Technology. The scheme ran from 2014 to 2017 and raised funds from more than 102,000 investors across China by selling unlicensed wealth-management products that promised guaranteed principal and high returns. Instead of backing real businesses, the money was used to repay earlier investors, fund fictitious projects, and purchase Bitcoin, property, vehicles and jewelry. Victims were left with losses of nearly 20 billion yuan, and Qian fled China in 2017 before eventually settling in the UK, where British authorities seized the crypto stash along with bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold, bitcoin SV, ripple, dogecoin, cash, jewelry and investment holdings.

On October 13, Tianjin's Second Intermediate People's Court accepted the prosecutors' confiscation request and opened a six-month window for victims and other interested parties to join the case. The filing came days after a UK High Court ruled that Chinese law, rather than English law, governs alleged victims' claims to the more than 61,000 Bitcoin held in Britain. That ruling does not bar victims from recovering assets, but it requires courts to assess property claims under Chinese legal standards, and lawyers representing some victims are seeking to appeal the decision. Qian is currently serving a prison sentence in the UK following a guilty plea for defrauding more than 128,000 investors.