A UK High Court judge allowed a trial over the alleged theft of more than 2,323 bitcoins to go ahead last week, in a case that highlights how the country’s legal system is still adapting traditional property rights to cryptocurrency.
British resident Ping Fai Yuen claimed in court proceedings last week that his estranged wife, Fun Yung Li, used CCTV cameras in their home to secretly obtain the recovery phrase for her hardware wallet and transferred 2,323 bitcoin without his permission in August 2023, according to the document in the High Court of England and Wales.
The bitcoin was worth just under $60 million at the time of the alleged theft 30 months ago, but is now worth approximately $172 million at the current price of just over $74,000.
The stolen crypto was stored in a Trezor cold wallet secured with a PIN code. 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 through numerous transactions and is now across 71 blockchain addresses not held on exchanges. According to the court, the funds have not moved since December 21, 2023.
Yuen said he later installed audio recording devices in the home after his daughter warned him that Li was trying to take bitcoin. Upon 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 hardware wallets and recovery seeds during a search of her home, although authorities later took no further action pending new evidence.
Earlier, according to the records, the wife asked the court to throw out the case, arguing that because the husband’s main claim was conversion, 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 agreed with the wife, but ruled that the case can still proceed under various legal requirements that could allow the husband to recover the bitcoin if his claims are proven. The case will now proceed to court, the judge said.
