South Korea · China · Bitcoin · United Kingdom · CryptoSlate
A $5 billion Bitcoin fortune is at stake, but UK court says being defrauded isn’t enough to claim it
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A London judge rejected Chinese fraud victims' bid to use English law to claim more than 61,000 seized Bitcoin.
Key facts
- The case stems from investment schemes operated by Zhimin Qian through Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology and associated businesses between 2014 and 2017
- According to the judgment's agreed factual background, the schemes collected approximately 40.23 billion yuan (£4.1 billion) through at least 128,409 investment contracts
- Bitcoin is +2.90% over the past 24 hours and currently sits at rank # 1 by market cap
- After fleeing China in 2017, she relocated to Britain, where authorities subsequently seized devices, private keys and other assets linked to more than 61,000 Bitcoin
Summary
01 A UK court ruled that Chinese law governs fraud victims' ownership claims over more than 61,000 Bitcoin seized by British authorities. 02 The decision favors prosecutors and requires investors to prove ownership rights beyond establishing that they lost money to fraud. 03 The court has yet to decide who receives the roughly $5 billion Bitcoin fortune, leaving thousands of investors facing further litigation. In an Oct. 12 ruling, High Court Justice Mark Turner sided with British prosecutors, determining that Chinese law must govern ownership claims over the cryptocurrency, currently worth approximately $5 billion.