UK court applies Chinese law in dispute over recovery of 61,000 BTC

The UK High Court ruled that Chinese law, rather than UK law, applies to a dispute over the recovery of 61,000 BTC tied to the Qian Zhimin case, which involved laundering large sums between China and the UK. The court found the legal basis for ownership claims brought by Chinese investors lies in China. As a result, more than 16,000 Chinese victims who joined the UK recovery process are unlikely to receive distributions based on gains from Bitcoin’s price appreciation under UK law. Experts said the victims will most likely be compensated only for principal and statutory interest under China’s legal system, while cross-border talks over whether the remaining gains should be confiscated and transferred to state coffers could emerge as a new issue in asset return negotiations. Qian had previously been sentenced in the UK to more than 11 years in prison for laundering the proceeds of an investment fraud in China targeting around 130,000 people through BTC, and UK police had seized 60,000 BTC in connection with the case.