The UK High Court has begun looking into recovery requests from multiple victims of the Blue Sky Green fraud case, where approximately 60,000 BTC was lost in total.
Between 2014 and 2017, Qian Zhimin (also known as Yadi Zhang), a Chinese woman, defrauded over 128,000 individuals of about 60,000 BTC through her company. About 16,000 of these victims have now commenced the recovery process using various UK law firms.
The Qian Zhimin Fraud
Qian lured 128,409 Chinese individuals to invest in her company, called Blue Sky Green (or Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology Co Ltd.). In 2017, she moved from China to the UK using forged documents. She then attempted to spend the stolen funds on luxury properties.
However, the plan was cut short as the Metropolitan Police arrested her and confiscated the funds, which were saved in BTC. At the time of seizure, the law enforcement authorities noted that the amount of BTC retrieved marked the “single largest cryptocurrency seizure” in the country. All 60,000 BTC were worth over £5.5 billion at the time of recovery. Notably, this fraud case added to the list of illicit cases involving BTC handled in the country.
In September 2025, Qian pled guilty to two charges under the UK Crime Act and was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in jail.
UK Court Looks Into Recovery Process
Fast-forward to 2026, and thousands of Chinese victims began exploring fund recovery. Following the UK’s Proceeds of Crime Act, these Chinese victims had until May 22 to register for civil recovery proceedings through UK law firms. As of when the registration window closed, about 16,000 individuals had submitted their requests. This represents less than 13% of the total 128,409 victims.
The latest court hearing revolved around how the UK law firms will jointly cover the litigation fees. Already, Fieldfisher, one of the law firms, has incurred an expense of about £190,000.
The presiding judge stated that all law firms must pay their share of the fees based on the individuals they represent on June 26.
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