Chinese fraud victims seek return of £3bn (61,000 bitcoin) seized in UK by London’s Metropolitan Police

Thousands of Chinese victims of an investment fraud are calling on Beijing to seek the return of more than £3bn worth of bitcoin seized in the UK, according to Financial Times.

A group representing victims of a £5bn scam run by Chinese company Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology submitted a letter this week to the foreign ministry in Beijing asking it to launch negotiations with the UK government for recovery of bitcoin bought with their money.

The request follows the conviction in Southwark Crown Court last month of British-Chinese woman Jian Wen on one count of helping her employer Zhimin Qian convert some of the bitcoin into cash, jewellery and property. Qian ran off with money from more than 128,000 investors in China through a wealth management fraud between 2014 and 2017, according to UK prosecutors. Qian then converted the money into bitcoin and arrived in London in 2017 under a false identity. Her whereabouts are unknown.

During a raid on Qian and Wen’s mansion in Hampstead in 2018, London’s Metropolitan Police seized devices containing 61,000 bitcoin, currently worth more than £3bn. It was one of the biggest crypto hauls by a law enforcement agency anywhere in the world.

In their letter, a copy of which was seen by the Financial Times, the victims urged Chinese authorities to liaise with UK judicial departments and submit relevant evidence to prove the group was “legitimate owners of this huge amount of bitcoin”.

UK authorities have not made clear how they will deal with the seized bitcoin. If UK authorities determined that Qian is the only one entitled to the assets, half of the forfeited funds would usually go to the police and the other half to the Home Office.