London High Court Rules Chinese Law Applies to Victims' Claims on 61,000 BTC Seized from Fraudster Zhimin Qian

The High Court in London ruled that Chinese law, not English law, should govern victims' claims on 61,000 BTC seized from fraudster Zhimin Qian. The Bitcoin is valued at about $5 billion at the current price of around $83,200 per coin. Qian was jailed for over 11 years for a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors in China between 2014 and 2017, involving at least 128,409 investment contracts and payments of about RMB 40.2 billion. Victims must show a proprietary interest in the coins to succeed under the Proceeds of Crime Act, as Chinese law was deemed applicable because the fraud, payments, and contracts all took place in China. The claimants' lawyers plan to appeal, and the application of Chinese law to the claims will be decided later.