A U.K. High Court judge last week allowed a trial over the alleged theft of more than 2,323 bitcoins, in a case that highlights the extent to which the country’s legal system continues to adapt traditional property law to cryptocurrency.
British resident Ping Fai Yuen claimed in court last week that his estranged wife, Fun Yung Li, used CCTV cameras in their home to secretly obtain the recovery phrase on her hardware wallet and transferred 2,323 bitcoins. BTC$74,704.84 Without his permission in August 2023, according to the High Court of England and Wales filing.
Bitcoin was worth just under $60 million at the time of the alleged theft 30 months ago, but is now worth about $172 million at the current price of just over $74,000.
The stolen crypto was stored in a Trezor cold wallet secured by a PIN. But anyone with the wallet’s 24-word recovery phrase could recreate the wallet and move the funds, the court noted. It was then transferred via multiple transactions and is now on 71 non-owned blockchain addresses on exchanges. The funds have not moved since December 21, 2023, according to the court.
Yuen said he then installed audio recording devices in the house after his daughter warned him that Li was trying to take the bitcoin. After discovering the transfer, Yuen confronted Li and assaulted her. He later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault in 2024. Officers seized several wallets of equipment and recovered seeds during a search of his home, although authorities subsequently took no further action pending further evidence.
Earlier, according to filings, the wife asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that because the husband’s primary claim had been converted, which in England is a legal term traditionally used when someone takes physical property, it could not apply to digital assets, such as bitcoin.
The judge ruled in favor of the wife, but ruled that the case could still continue through various legal actions that could allow the husband to recover the bitcoin if his allegations were proven. The case will now go to trial, the judge said.
