USD
China Seeks 61,896 BTC as UK Court Shapes Qian Victim Claims
Tianjin Confiscation Case Opens While London Ownership Fight Continues
TL;DR
- Chinese prosecutors have applied to confiscate 61,896 BTC seized from Zhimin Qian in the UK.
- A Tianjin court accepted the confiscation case and opened a six-month process for victims and other interested parties.
- The UK High Court ruled that Chinese law should govern victims’ ownership claims to the seized Bitcoin.
Trade smarter on Jupiter, Solana’s leading DEX built for fast execution and deep liquidity.
Swap tokens at competitive rates, route across multiple liquidity sources automatically, and access perpetuals, DCA, and advanced trading tools — all in one place!
Chinese prosecutors have applied to confiscate 61,896 BTC seized from Zhimin Qian in the UK, while Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court has agreed to hear the case. The application seeks Bitcoin and other assets that prosecutors argue are proceeds of a large fundraising fraud. A parallel legal fight remains active in London, where the UK High Court has ruled that Chinese law should govern victims’ claims to the seized cryptocurrency.
The Tianjin court said it accepted the prosecutors’ application on September 28 and published its notice on October 13. The court said evidence showed Qian had committed fundraising fraud, mainly in Tianjin’s Hedong district. At a Bitcoin price of around $82,000, COIN360 data put the seized Bitcoin’s value at about $5.1 billion. The Chinese proceeding does not itself determine that all confiscated assets will go to the government or that victims will immediately receive compensation.
Prosecutors Link Assets to Multibillion-Yuan Fundraising Scheme
Prosecutors identified Qian as the controller of Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology. Between April 2014 and August 2017, the company allegedly sold unlicensed wealth-management products across China while promising guaranteed returns. The scheme raised more than 40.378 billion yuan, or about $5.7 billion, from more than 102,000 investors. Prosecutors said investor losses exceeded 19.977 billion yuan as much of the money was allegedly diverted from genuine business activity.
Prosecutors allege funds were instead used to repay earlier investors, operate fictitious investment projects, buy Bitcoin and purchase property, cars, jewelry and other assets. Qian fled China in July 2017 with computers containing Bitcoin wallets and later reached the UK, where some of the cryptocurrency was converted into other assets. British authorities ultimately seized Bitcoin along with additional cryptocurrencies, cash, jewelry and investment holdings connected to the case.
The Chinese confiscation application also covers several other cryptocurrencies and financial assets:
UK authorities had already converted the listed non-Bitcoin crypto holdings and placed the proceeds in an interest-bearing account. Chinese prosecutors argue that the seized property should be recovered, returned to victims where applicable and otherwise confiscated. Because Qian had been a wanted fugitive for more than a year, prosecutors said the case falls under Chinese rules allowing confiscation proceedings without the suspect being present.
Victims can apply to participate through a WeChat mini-program. Those who do not join the proceeding can still receive repayments from recovered assets. The notice period runs for six months before the court hears the confiscation case. That process leaves the distribution of the assets subject to the court proceedings rather than automatically transferring the entire pool to either the Chinese government or the victims.
UK High Court Puts Chinese Law at Center of Bitcoin Claims
Qian was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in the UK in November 2025 after pleading guilty to acquiring and possessing criminal property. Weeks after the guilty plea, UK prosecutors told the High Court that they were planning a compensation scheme for victims. They later said victims could instead be compensated through a redress scheme administered from China.
Unnamed UK Treasury officials had also privately raised whether the seized Bitcoin could help address a shortfall in the country’s public finances, the Financial Times reported at the time. Legal experts, meanwhile, argued that victims could be entitled to compensation if they established a sufficient link to the cryptocurrency. AMBCrypto described the London proceeding as involving £3.8 billion, or about $5 billion, in seized Bitcoin.
The High Court ruled on October 12 that Chinese law should govern thousands of victims’ claims to the coins, improving the UK government’s chances of retaining the assets. Fieldfisher, the law firm representing claimants, said it is seeking to appeal. The ruling did not decide whether the victims own the Bitcoin because evidence on the substance of Chinese law had not yet been heard.
David Phillips, a dispute resolution partner at London law firm SMB, wrote that the decision shows that “a victim cannot necessarily recover cryptocurrency simply by proving: ‘That Bitcoin was bought with money taken from me.’”
“Cryptoassets may operate without borders, but proprietary rights in them remain capable of raising intensely territorial questions of applicable law,” Phillips added.
Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, the lead investigating officer in the case, also described the asset-tracing effort as unusually complex:
“This was a long, complex, and unprecedented investigation into the laundering of criminal proceeds through cryptocurrency. Over a number of years, significant efforts were made to move and disguise the funds and convert them into assets in the UK.”
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
