What the ruling actually decides

The UK High Court has not decided who owns more than 61,000 bitcoin seized by London’s Metropolitan Police. It has decided which country’s law gets to answer that question, and the answer is China’s, not England’s. That distinction matters because it changes the legal test thousands of fraud victims must now meet to claim a share of roughly $5 billion in crypto.

Mr Justice Mark Turner handed down the judgment on Monday, October 12, in Director of Public Prosecutions v Zhimin Qian & Anor [2026] EWHC 2509 (KB), according to Chain Daily. The case sits inside civil recovery proceedings brought under Section 281 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and Monday’s order settles only the applicable law. Whether any victim actually holds a proprietary interest in the bitcoin is left to a later hearing.

Key Takeaways

  • Mr Justice Mark Turner ruled that Chinese law, not English law, governs whether fraud victims have property rights in more than 61,000 BTC seized by London’s Metropolitan Police.
  • The bitcoin, tied to Zhimin Qian’s Ponzi scheme in China between 2014 and 2017, is worth about £3.8 billion ($5 billion); Arkham data cited by The Block puts the UK government’s holding at roughly 61,245 BTC ($5.1 billion).
  • The ruling does not decide ownership; it narrows the path victims can use to claim it, which the Financial Times reported could improve the UK’s chances of retaining most of the bitcoin.
  • Law firm Fieldfisher, representing individual claimants, is appealing, per the FT; the Crown Prosecution Service says a further hearing will examine whether any victims can establish an interest under Chinese law.
  • Qian was sentenced last November to 11 years and eight months after pleading guilty to money laundering.

Why the choice of law changes the odds

Section 281 lets someone claim that seized property “belongs to” them, but only if they show a proprietary interest, not simply a right to be repaid as a creditor. Law firm Duan & Duan, which represents some victims, told The Block that a personal claim against Qian for the money handed over “is not enough.” Under English law, victims’ lawyers argued they could potentially claim direct ownership of the bitcoin itself. Chinese law makes that harder, which is why prosecutors pushed for it and victims’ counsel resisted.

Turner tested the question under the Rome I and Rome II regulations and under common law rules governing competing interests in property, and every route pointed the same way, according to Chain Daily. “The relevant damage occurred in China. The applicants parted with their money in China,” the judge wrote, as quoted by Cointelegraph. “The alleged fraudulent representations were made in China. The contractual relationships thereby induced were entered into in China.” CoinDesk’s report of the same judgment adds that he also cited the “immediate economic consequences of the alleged wrongdoing” as having been “suffered in China,” per CoinDesk.

The underlying fraud and the seizure

Zhimin Qian ran the scheme through Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology Co Limited, which she set up around March 31, 2014, running roughly ten investment schemes through July 2017, all designed and operated in China, per Chain Daily. An audit by the Zhongyi CPAS Tianjin Office found at least 128,409 investment contracts, and a Tianjin Hedong District People’s Court judgment from September 2021 put total funds received from victims at about RMB 40.2 billion (£4.1 billion), with roughly RMB 34.1 billion (£3.4 billion) repaid to some of them.

Qian converted proceeds into more than 100,000 bitcoin bought between mid-2014 and June 2017 through an account at Huobi (now HTX) opened in an associate’s name, plus over-the-counter purchases in China and mining, The Block and Chain Daily both report. She fled to Myanmar in July 2017 before moving to London, where Metropolitan Police searched a property and safe deposit box on October 31 and November 1, 2018, seizing devices and keys used to access the coins. More assets were taken when she was arrested in April 2024. The court issued a Property Freezing Order in December 2023, a Management Receivership Order in June 2025, and a Judgment and Declaration in January 2026, according to Chain Daily. Qian was sentenced last November to 11 years and eight months after pleading guilty to money laundering.

Where victims and the government disagree

About 16,000 Chinese victims have joined the UK proceedings, Caixin reported, and under Chinese law they could be limited to recovering their original investments plus interest rather than any share of bitcoin’s price appreciation since 2017, a gap that matters given bitcoin’s rise since the fraud occurred. Fieldfisher, the lead firm for individual claimants, is pursuing an appeal, the FT reported, while Duan & Duan UK LLP partner Jackson Ng called Monday’s judgment “an important decision for the many thousands of Chinese investors who lost money in the Tianjin Lantian Gerui scheme.”

The stakes for the UK Treasury are sizable. Arkham-labeled wallet addresses put the government’s holding at an estimated 61,245 BTC, worth about $5.1 billion, which Bitcoin Treasuries data cited by The Block ranks third among national holdings, behind the United States’ estimated 328,372 BTC ($27.3 billion) and China’s 190,000 BTC ($15.8 billion). CoinDesk notes the US established a strategic bitcoin reserve in March 2025 built from enforcement seizures, with addresses linked to the US government holding $25.8 billion in cryptocurrencies, per Arkham Intelligence, a comparison that underscores how significant the UK’s seized bitcoin stack has become to its own balance sheet.

What to Watch

The case stays before the High Court in London rather than moving to a Chinese court, per Cointelegraph. The next stage involves expert evidence on Chinese law to determine whether any victims can show a proprietary interest in the bitcoin, a question the Crown Prosecution Service says will be addressed at a further hearing. Fieldfisher’s appeal of Monday’s choice-of-law ruling is also pending.

Sources