Husband Claims Wife Stole Bitcoin via CCTV – Legal Drama Unfolds!

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Finance

What to know:

  • A U.K. High Court judge, who clearly has a sense of humor about the whole thing, allowed a lawsuit over the alleged theft of 2,323 bitcoin (now worth $172 million) to proceed to trial. The legal system, ever the slow learner, is still trying to figure out if Bitcoin is a “thing” or a “thought.”
  • The husband, Ping Fai Yuen, claims his estranged wife secretly obtained his hardware wallet recovery phrase via home CCTV and transferred the Bitcoin without his permission in 2023. One wonders if the cameras were filming a soap opera or a heist movie.
  • While the judge rejected his primary claim of conversion (traditionally for physical property), the case will continue under alternative legal claims. It’s like trying to sue a ghost with a net made of bureaucracy.

A U.K. High Court judge allowed a lawsuit over the alleged theft of more than 2,323 Bitcoin to move forward last week, in a case that highlights how the country’s legal system is still adapting traditional property law to cryptocurrency. It’s like teaching a parrot to recite Shakespeare-possible, but not advisable.

U.K. resident Ping Fai Yuen claimed in court filings that his estranged wife, Fun Yung Li, used CCTV cameras in their home to secretly obtain the recovery phrase to his hardware wallet and transferred 2,323 Bitcoin without his permission in August 2023. The wife’s alibi? “I was just watching the telly.”

The Bitcoin was worth just under $60 million at the time of the alleged theft 30 months ago, but is now worth roughly $172 million at the current price of just over $74,000. The wife’s financial acumen is as impressive as a clockwork orangutan.

The stolen crypto was stored in a Trezor cold wallet secured by a PIN. But anyone with the wallet’s 24-word recovery phrase could recreate the wallet and move the funds, the court noted. It was then transferred through several transactions and now sits across 71 blockchain addresses not held at exchanges. The funds have not moved since Dec. 21, 2023, according to the court. A digital ghost, perhaps?

Yuen said he later installed audio recording devices in the home after his daughter warned him Li was trying to take the Bitcoin. After discovering the transfer, Yuen confronted Li and assaulted her. He later pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault in 2024. A man’s rage, as the old adage goes, is a terrible thing to waste.

Earlier, according to the filings, the wife asked the court to throw out the case, arguing that because the husband’s main claim was conversion, which in England is a legal term traditionally used when someone takes physical property, it could not apply to digital assets, such as Bitcoin. The judge, with all the flair of a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, dismissed the primary claim, noting that conversion is for things you can physically hold, like a loaf of bread or a goat, not digital coins.

The judge agreed with the wife, but ruled the case can still proceed under different legal claims that could allow the husband to recover the Bitcoin if his allegations are proven. The case will now proceed to trial, the judge said. A legal battle as thrilling as a cheese-rolling contest, but with more legalese.

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2026-03-17 01:31