The U.K. government has yet to decide what it will be doing with the cryptocurrency it has seized as part of a 7-year investigation launched by the Metropolitan police unit.
The task force arrested two individuals connected with a cryptocurrency laundering scheme that saw hundreds of investors lose their money, who are now looking for compensation.
Over a span of roughly three years (2014-2017), Chinese national Zhimin Qian was responsible for a mass-scale scam that defrauded investors of their money. Qian then reportedly took this money and spent it on lavish property in Dubai and North London.
Originally seized by U.K. authorities in 2018, legal and government entities are now considering multiple options when it comes to compensating victims affected by the scheme. One option currently is to give victims the amount that their BTC was valued at per the market price at the time of losing their investments.
As told to Decrypt by a legal expert, victims affected will have to make applications under Section 281 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.