This is reported by the publication CoinDesk.
The plaintiff, whose name is Ping Fai Yuen, claimed that his wife Fan Yun Li with the help of a surveillance camera learned the password to his hardware cryptocurrency wallet. In August 2023, she allegedly withdrew 2,323 bitcoins from her husband’s account without his authorization. At the time, this cryptocurrency was worth just over a billion lei. Since then, its value has almost tripled (at the time of writing, the quotes are $68,331 per VTS).
When the man discovered that Lei had stolen his bitcoins, he beat her up. In 2024, he had to plead guilty to assault causing bodily harm. Since then, he has tried to hold the woman accountable and accused her of wrongful possession. In response, the woman called for the claim to be dismissed because in English law, wrongful possession of property does not apply to digital objects like cryptocurrency.
By the way, the situation is approximately the same in Moldova, where cryptocurrencies are practically not regulated by laws. That is, if we proceed from the English law, fraudsters who build financial pyramids with contributions in USDT or other stablecoins are unjustifiable, because legally these financial instruments are not recognized in our country.
And the UK judge agreed with Lee’s arguments and recognized that what happened cannot be called wrongful taking of property. However, he did not dismiss the suit and ruled that the case could be considered on other grounds.
