(March 19): After their divorce a husband has accused his ex-wife of plotting to steal bitcoin worth millions and luxury watches, in a case that’s set to test how digital assets are treated by English civil courts.
Ping Fai Yuen sued Fun Yung Li in a London court after he discovered that she had stolen bitcoin from his wallet and moved the digital assets out of his reach. The more than 2,323 bitcoin has been worth as much as £180 million (US$238 million or $305.3 million) since the litigation began, according to a London court ruling published March 10.
Yuen alleges that his ex-wife worked with a hacker to obtain a password to crack open the so-called cold wallet and then move the cryptocurrency to herself. Tipped off by his daughter, Yuen secretly recorded his ex-wife speaking with an unidentified caller about how to navigate money laundering checks, his lawyers said according to the ruling.
“You claim that your money was bitcoin, such large amount, so many questions, how are you going to explain about it,” the unidentified person said in conversation with Li, according to the court ruling. “Such large amount even 10 banks, which it’s not enough to put them into, you cannot explain how you obtain such large amount of money.”
Li, who now lives in Hong Kong, has denied all involvement and provided the court with a one sentence affidavit.
“It was essentially a one sentence response confirming that she was “unaware of any information required to be provided in response to the matters...” In my judgment it can be properly described as a bare denial of any involvement in the matters alleged in the straight forward factual claim as presented,” the judge wrote in the ruling.
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Lawyers for both Yuen and Li didn’t respond to requests for comment.
When Yuen discovered that his bitcoin had been stolen he confronted his ex-wife and assaulted her, the judge wrote in the ruling. He was eventually arrested and pleaded guilty in 2024 to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two offenses of common assault.
The civil case is set to go to trial, but the High Court ruling after a hearing on March 2 has exposed significant gaps in English law when it comes to digital assets and how they can be handled in lawsuits.
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Judge Barry Cotter found that in this theft case, Yuen cannot sue his wife for simply taking his digital assets. This is because unlike other forms of possessions such as paintings or luxury watches, cryptocurrency is not a physical object. Under current UK law, this type of claim only applies to items you physically can own.
Despite, the government introducing the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act last year, it did not address this issue.
During the hearing, Yuen’s lawyers pointed to cases in Canada, New Zealand and several US states where courts have allowed civil claims over stolen digital assets. In his ruling the judge said that this claim provides “fertile ground” to potentially fill this legal void.
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