United Kingdom officials are weighing whether to retain billions of dollars in gains from seized Bitcoin tied to a massive fraud case, rather than distributing the full, current value to victims, according to the Financial Times.
According to a Thursday Financial Times report, the UK High Court may decide to reimburse only the original value of the investments, about 640 million British pounds ($862 million), to victims of the scam. This is despite the seized 61,000 Bitcoin (BTC) being worth nearly $7.24 billion at the time of writing, resulting in an excess of about $6.4 billion.
The Bitcoin was seized in 2018 in north London from scammers who defrauded 128,000 investors in China. Some Treasury officials have privately debated whether the windfall could help offset a budget deficit of up to 30 billion pounds ($40.5 billion). Under existing rules, assets seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act are usually paid into the Home Office or the Treasury Consolidated Fund, with court-ordered compensation when required.
The FT also reported that other government officials have urged caution since such a decision may lead to a complex legal battle over the Bitcoin proceeds that could drag on for years. The Treasury has been instructed not to use the funds in its calculations.
Largest crypto seizure in history
The assets in question were seized from Chinese national Zhimin Qian and her Malaysian assistant, Seng Hok Ling, who pled guilty earlier this week. The local police force announced that it had “made what is believed to be the single largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world.”
The seizure followed a seven-year investigation by the London Metropolitan Police’s Economic Crime team into international money laundering. Qian pleaded guilty to acquiring and possessing criminal property, while Ling pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property.
Between 2014 and 2017, Qian led a large-scale fraud scheme in China, siphoning assets from over 128,000 victims. These assets were later stored as Bitcoin when she fled China using false documents and entered the United Kingdom.
In September 2018, Qian attempted to launder the proceeds by acquiring property. The police were able to locate her by surveilling Ling, leading to their arrest in April 2024, and to the seizure of encrypted devices, cash, gold and cryptocurrency.
The latest in many crypto seizures
Earlier this month, Canadian police seized $40 million in crypto from TradeOgre, which the exchange’s supporters have criticized as heavy-handed due to the lack of Know Your Customer checks.
In mid-August, the US Justice Department authorized the seizure of more than $2.8 million in cryptocurrency, along with cash and other assets, as part of a criminal case against an alleged ransomware operator. In early July, Bloomberg reported that the US Secret Service had seized nearly $400 million in digital assets over the past decade.
Sweden’s justice minister also called on local authorities to focus on crackdowns that could yield larger seizures of assets, including cryptocurrency.
In June, US crypto exchange Coinbase announced that it helped the US Secret Service seize $225 million in crypto allegedly stolen by scammers, the agency’s largest crypto seizure to date.
