Victims of the Tianjin Electronic investment scam have asked the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to forward to the UK government a letter from more than 2,500 customers demanding the return of confiscated bitcoins.

In 2021, in the UK, former hotel employee Jian Wen was detained and charged with money laundering while trying to buy a $30 million mansion with bitcoins. The real estate acquisition transaction did not take place because Wen was unable to explain to law enforcement agencies the source of the funds.

After the search, the police confiscated 61,000 BTC from the woman. In March, Southwark Crown Court found Jian Wen guilty of money laundering using Bitcoin through the purchase of “multi-million-dollar properties and jewellery”. The court linked the origin of the funds to a fraudulent crypto-investment scheme of the Chinese technology company Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic and its probable director Zhimin Qian.

According to court documents, crypto assets were taken from nearly 130,000 Chinese investors between 2014 and 2017.

Victims of the fraud have highlighted the huge economic impact and personal hardships facing Chinese authorities, calling on their home government to influence their British counterparts to “make their voices heard in the fight to reclaim property.”

The UK authorities have not yet disclosed their plans regarding the future of the confiscated bitcoins.

Earlier, the Chinese police announced the arrest of part of the team and the beginning of an investigation into the liquid staking platform STFIL, created on the basis of Filecoin.