The Daily Mail reported a £5.6 million recovery from Seng Hok Ling, while investors in a Chinese fraud case continue to contest ownership of more than 61,000 seized Bitcoin (BTC).
The Daily Mail said Ling’s court-ordered payment was complete, with a further £1,990 collected as interest.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said a court imposed a £5,603,305.81 confiscation order on Ling on Jan. 22. The CPS said most assets available to Ling came from cryptocurrency police seized when they arrested him. A judge sentenced Ling to four years and 11 months in prison in November 2025 after he admitted possessing criminal property.
Prosecutors said Zhimin Qian’s investment fraud in China involved more than 128,000 victims from 2014 to 2017 and caused about £600 million in losses. They said Qian converted approximately £20.2 million of the proceeds into Bitcoin.
Ling’s criminal confiscation order does not resolve investors’ claims to more than 61,000 Bitcoin seized in the wider case. On Oct. 12, the High Court ruled that Chinese law would govern the investors’ asserted ownership rights, citing the Chinese setting of the transactions and alleged wrongdoing. The court left the substance of those rights for a later stage.
