According to CoinMeta, a London court ruling has strengthened the UK government's chances of retaining 3.8 billion pounds (about 5 billion US dollars) in seized bitcoins. The court ruled that thousands of Chinese fraud victims cannot recover their bitcoins under British law. This ruling involves 61,000 bitcoins seized by the Metropolitan Police of London during their investigation into fraudster Qian Zhimin. Qian Zhimin carried out a Ponzi scheme through his company, defrauding over 128,000 investors, and converted the stolen funds into bitcoins in 2017 to flee to the UK. Judge Mark Turner ruled that since the fraudulent activities occurred in China, Chinese law should apply. This ruling does not ultimately determine the ownership of the bitcoins, but it reduces the possibilities for victims to recover them and increases the UK Treasury's chances of keeping the seized bitcoins. The victims' lawyers are appealing the decision.