A London judge ruled on October 12 that Chinese law must govern ownership claims over more than 61,000 Bitcoin seized by British authorities, currently worth approximately $5 billion. The High Court decision, favoring British prosecutors, rejected Chinese fraud victims’ attempts to use English law, requiring them to prove property rights rather than simply demonstrating they lost money to fraud. The case stems from investment schemes operated by Zhimin Qian between 2014 and 2017, which collected approximately 40.23 billion yuan through at least 128,409 investment contracts. Qian fled China in 2017 for Britain, where authorities later seized devices and private keys linked to over 61,000 Bitcoin. Lawyers representing the victims have indicated they plan to appeal the ruling.
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