British officials are considering whether to stop around USD 6.4 billion in Bitcoins, which were confiscated in connection with the famous matter regarding “Queen of Bitcoin”. The funds are to help the country patch the budget hole.
Great Britain will put his hands on the property of the “Queen of Bitcoin”?
According to the Financial Times, British officials are considering whether to stop billions of USD in confiscated bitcoins. According to the media, the British Supreme Court may decide to return only the original value of cryptocurrencies, i.e. about 640 million British pounds (USD 862 million). These funds will go to the victims of fraud. The profit will remain in the state budget.
It is about the confiscated 61,000 bitcoins, which are currently worth about USD 7.24 billion. Since the victims need to be returned to USD 862 million, as much as USD 6.4 billion of profit remains!
Bitcoins were confiscated in London. They were taken over by China citizen Zhimin Qian, the so -called “Queen Bitcoin”, who stood behind Scam, who deceived as many as 128,000 investors in China. The woman escaped with the bitcoin property to Great Britain, where she tried to wash coins. She began to invest in real estate and gold. This caused the services to be interested in her, which led to her arrest in April 2024.
What to do with such property?
While Zhimin Qian is waiting for the sentence, UK officials are to wonder what to do with her bitcoins. The confiscation and partial coverage of the budget deficit reaching 30 billion pounds (USD 40.5 billion) is at stake. Pursuant to applicable regulations, assets confiscated under the Crime Income Act are usually paid to the account of the Ministry of the Interior or to the Consolidated State Treasury Fund.
Some state officials, however, call for caution, because such a decision will probably lead to a complicated legal battle about bitcoin, which can be stretched for years.
However, this is not the first such spectacular acquisition of cryptocurrencies. At the beginning of September, the Canadian police took over cryptocurrencies worth USD 40 million from the Tradeogre stock exchange, which allegedly did not have KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures. Among the cryptocurrencies were also assets of the company’s clients.
In mid -August, the US Department of Justice allowed the takeover of cryptocurrencies with a value of over USD 2.8 million – all as part of criminal proceedings against the alleged Ransomware operator.
At the beginning of July, Bloomberg announced that over the past decade, American Secret Service has taken over digital assets worth almost USD 400 million.
