UK High Court Rules Chinese Law Governs Fraud Victims' Claims to 61,000 Seized Bitcoin Worth $5 Billion

London's High Court has dealt a major blow to Chinese fraud victims seeking to reclaim 61,000 Bitcoin, worth approximately 3.8 billion pounds ($5 billion), ruling that Chinese law rather than English law governs their ownership claims. Mr Justice Mark Turner issued the judgment Monday, reasoning that because the underlying scheme and the victims' losses occurred in China, Chinese law must determine whether claimants hold property rights in the seized coins.

The Bitcoin was seized by London's Metropolitan Police during a money laundering investigation into Zhimin Qian, who ran a massive Ponzi scheme through her company, Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology, defrauding more than 128,000 investors between 2014 and 2017. Qian converted the stolen proceeds into Bitcoin and fled to the United Kingdom in 2017, and she has since pleaded guilty to two counts of money laundering.

The victims had argued for the application of English law, which could have allowed them to assert direct property rights over the cryptocurrency fortune and claim the full benefit of Bitcoin's enormous price appreciation since the scheme collapsed. Under Chinese law, their path is significantly narrower, as they may be limited to creditor-style compensation rather than outright ownership. The ruling does not resolve who ultimately owns the coins, leaving that question for subsequent proceedings, but it substantially increases the likelihood that the British government will retain most of the hoard. The victims' lawyers have said they are appealing the decision.