UK Court Says Chinese Law Decides Who Owns 61,000 Seized Bitcoin
The 61,000 bitcoin seized from a Chinese fraudster will be judged under Chinese law, not English law, a London court has ruled.
Justice Mark Turner decided the victims' claims to the coins must be tested under the law of the country where they lost their money, not where the bitcoin now sits. The judgment came down on 12 October.
Why the choice of law is the whole ballgame
The dispute runs back to a Ponzi scheme that operated between 2014 and 2017 under the name Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology, a company that was never licensed to sell financial products. Prosecutors say the scheme pulled in more than 128,000 investors, and part of the cash was converted into bitcoin before British police seized the assets during a money-laundering investigation. Qian Zhimin, the woman behind it, was jailed for 11 years and eight months in November 2025.
Most of the people chasing the coins are Chinese nationals who were living in China when they handed over their money. They pushed for English law because it would let them claim direct ownership of the coins — including a decade of price appreciation — instead of queueing up as ordinary creditors.
Chinese law could limit what they recover to their principal and interest, not the windfall. Turner wrote that the relevant damage occurred in China and that the contracts induced by the fraud were entered into there.
What the ruling does not settle
The judgment only picks the rulebook; it hands nobody a single satoshi. The content and effect of Chinese law still has to be argued, and the court left the substance of each individual claim for later proceedings.
The appeal is already teeing up
Lawyers for the claimants say they are weighing an appeal against the decision. The case sits inside a civil recovery action under the Proceeds of Crime Act, where a victim has to show the property actually belongs to them — a personal claim for repayment is not enough.
For anyone holding assets that have been seized or frozen, that is the number to watch. Ownership of crypto is only as strong as the court willing to recognise it, and in this fight the courtroom is Chinese even though the coins are sitting in London.