The UK High Court ruled on October 12 that Chinese law must apply to determine ownership rights over the 61,000 BTC seized in one of the largest cryptocurrency money laundering cases in history. These bitcoins were purchased between 2014 and 2017 by Chinese citizen Qian Zhimin, who orchestrated a fraudulent investment scheme totaling 40.23 billion yuan (approximately $5.9 billion) that attracted 128,409 investors. The approximately 16,000 Chinese victims had hoped to use English property law to claim not only their initial investment but also the substantial gains generated by bitcoin’s price increase. Justice Turner sided with prosecutors, ruling that the majority of contracts and transactions were connected to China, thereby limiting victims to recovering only their initial stake plus interest.
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