UK High Court Rules Chinese Law Governs Victims' Claims to 61,000 Bitcoin Seized in Qian Zhimin Case
In a preliminary judgment handed down on October 12, the High Court in London ruled that ownership claims to the 61,000 bitcoin seized by the Metropolitan Police in the case of Qian Zhimin must be assessed under Chinese law rather than English law. Mr Justice Turner held that the investment contracts, the investors' payments and the bitcoin purchases all took place in China, and that the immediate economic consequences of the alleged fraud were suffered in China.
The seized bitcoin are now worth about 3.8 billion pounds (about $5 billion). Qian ran investment schemes through Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology between 2014 and 2017 that defrauded more than 128,000 investors; she converted the proceeds into bitcoin and fled to the United Kingdom in 2017. In November 2025 she pleaded guilty to money laundering in the U.K. and was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison.
The ruling does not decide who ultimately keeps the bitcoin. The Crown Prosecution Service says a further hearing will determine whether any victims can establish an interest in the coins, and according to the Financial Times the claimants' lead law firm, Fieldfisher, is pursuing an appeal. A court order in March 2026 listed 2,594 applicants claiming under section 281 of the Proceeds of Crime Act. Caixin has reported that about 16,000 Chinese victims are participating in the U.K. recovery process; under a Chinese-law analysis, victims would generally be limited to recovering principal and interest rather than a share of the bitcoin's appreciation.
Qian bought the bitcoin at an average price of about 2,815 yuan per coin; the price has since risen roughly 200-fold. The final distribution of the seized assets will depend on the appeal and on later hearings on the content of Chinese law.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：实体比特币纪念币（资料图）。Shixart1985 摄，CC BY 2.0，取自维基共享资源。Photo: A physical bitcoin coin (file photo). By Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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