A London court has strengthened the UK government’s chances of retaining most of the 61,000 seized Bitcoins, valued at approximately £3.8 billion ($5 billion), after ruling that English law cannot be used by thousands of Chinese victims to claim coins.
Mr. Justice Mark Turner ruled on Monday, October 12, that Chinese law must govern the victims’ property claims as the fraud and resulting losses occurred in China, CoinDesk reported.
“The relevant damage occurred in China. The applicants parted with their money in China. The alleged fraudulent representations were made in China,” the judge said. “The contractual relationships thereby induced were entered into in China. The immediate economic consequences of the alleged wrongdoing were likewise suffered in China.”
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Chinese Law Governs Victims’ Claims
The victims argued that English law should apply to establish ownership rights over the cryptocurrency. However, Turner found that their payments, the fraudulent representations and the immediate financial damage were all connected to China.
The Metropolitan Police seized the Bitcoin during an investigation into Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Qian’s investment fraud affected more than 128,000 victims between 2014 and 2017. She received an 11-year, eight-month prison sentence in November 2025 after pleading guilty to crypto-related money laundering offences.
Ownership Remains Unresolved
Note that the ruling does not finally award the Bitcoin to the U.K. Treasury or finally establish who owns it.
However, it narrows the victims’ path to recovering the assets, making it increasingly likely that the Treasury will ultimately keep the seized Bitcoin.
The victims’ lawyers are appealing, the Financial Times reported. The CPS says a further hearing will examine whether victims can establish an interest in the assets.
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