asset forfeiture

Tianjin court opens forfeiture case over 61,896 BTC seized by UK authorities

A court in Tianjin has opened a domestic forfeiture proceeding targeting 61,896 BTC seized by British authorities from convicted fraudster Qian Zhimin, creating a parallel legal process in China over assets worth about $5.1 billion at a bitcoin price of roughly $82,200, based on CoinGecko data. The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said it accepted the application on Sept. 28 from the Second Branch of the Tianjin People’s Procuratorate, and published the notice on Oct. 13. The move came one day after a High Court judge in London ruled that Chinese law should determine whether victims have rights in the frozen bitcoin. Prosecutors are also seeking forfeiture of bitcoin cash, XRP, bitcoin SV, bitcoin gold, proceeds from dogecoin already sold by UK authorities, and other assets including cash, jewelry, bank deposits and investments. The court notice says Qian controlled Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology, which sold fake wealth-management products between April 2014 and August 2017, taking in about 40.4 billion yuan and leaving roughly 102,000 investors with losses close to 20 billion yuan.

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Qian Zhimin

18 days agoNews Editor

Court accepts prosecutors’ asset forfeiture request in Qian Zhimin case involving more than 61,800 BTC

A Chinese court has accepted a prosecutors’ application to confiscate assets tied to suspect Qian Zhimin in a case involving more than 40 billion yuan in illegal fundraising, according to a report cited by BlockBeats. The Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said it formally accepted the case on Sept. 28 after an application from the Second Branch of the Tianjin People’s Procuratorate. The asset list published by the court includes more than 61,800 BTC allegedly seized in the United Kingdom, along with 72,745.79502 BCH, 72,745.78555 BTG, 72,745.7845 BSV, 3,605,989.9995 XRP, and 70,081,208.62553222 DOGE. The DOGE had already been converted by U.K. judicial authorities and placed into an interest-bearing account. The forfeiture request also covers cash in U.S. dollars, euros, and pounds sterling, as well as jewelry, bank balances, and investment portfolios. Prosecutors said Qian is suspected of fundraising fraud and had remained at large for one year after being put on a wanted list. They argued that the assets seized in the U.K. constitute illegal proceeds and accrued gains, and should be recovered, with any portion that should legally be returned to affected fundraising participants excluded from confiscation.

430

CoinDesk

23 days agoNews Editor

Dark web drug market operator gets 40 years and forfeits $101 million in bitcoin

CoinDesk reported that a Virginia man tied to a dark web drug market was sentenced to 40 years in prison and forfeited $101 million in bitcoin. The case involved millions of drug transactions worth roughly $430 million, according to the report. CoinDesk said the defendant agreed to give up $100 million worth of BTC, while his partner separately forfeited nearly 1,600 BTC. The article headline also states that 1,230 bitcoin were forfeited in the case. The report was published on Oct. 9, 2026.

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U.S. Government

25 days agoNews Editor

U.S. government moves $103.19 million in seized crypto, with BTC sent to Coinbase Prime

Wallets tied to the U.S. government moved $103.19 million in seized and forfeited crypto on Tuesday, according to an X post from Onchain Lens. The transfers included 833.599 BTC worth $71.56 million sent to Coinbase Prime and 40,285 BNB worth $31.63 million sent to a fresh wallet. Onchain Lens linked the bitcoin to forfeitures tied to the Potapenko/Turogin case and the Bitfinex hack, while the BNB was linked to seized FTX and Alameda funds. Arkham labels attributed roughly 568.7 BTC to the Potapenko/Turogin forfeiture and about 264.9 BTC to the Bitfinex case. Coinbase Prime is an institutional custody and trading platform, so the transfer does not by itself show that the BTC was sold. At the time of publication, Unchained said it had found no public sale announcement tied to the transfers. The report also pointed to a March 2025 executive order that bars sales of government bitcoin placed into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, while setting up a separate Digital Asset Stockpile for non-bitcoin assets owned by the Treasury and finally forfeited.

610

SBF

2 months agoNews Editor

SBF asks the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn fraud conviction and grant a new trial

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, widely known as SBF, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his appeal, according to CNN. He is seeking a new trial and wants the court to set aside an order requiring the forfeiture of $11 billion in assets. Bankman-Fried was sentenced in 2024 to 25 years in prison. The appeal centers on a technical legal dispute over evidence presented at trial. It also raises the question of whether Bankman-Fried should have been allowed to argue that his investments were ultimately profitable and sufficient to cover losses suffered by FTX customers. Prosecutors had said he directed billions of dollars from crypto exchange FTX to Alameda Research, the hedge fund he controlled, and that the money was later used for high-risk investments, political donations, and personal spending. Bankman-Fried is also arguing that the $11 billion forfeiture violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bars excessive fines.

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FTX

2 months agoNews Editor

SBF asks U.S. Supreme Court for new trial and to void $11 billion forfeiture order

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, widely known as SBF, filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday seeking a new trial and asking the court to overturn an order requiring the forfeiture of $11 billion in assets, according to CNN. Bankman-Fried was sentenced in 2024 to 25 years in prison. Prosecutors had said he directed billions of dollars from crypto exchange FTX to Alameda Research, the hedge fund he controlled. Those funds were later used for high-risk investments, political donations and personal spending. The Supreme Court filing centers on a technical legal dispute over evidence presented at trial. It also raises the question of whether Bankman-Fried should have been allowed to argue that his investments were ultimately profitable and sufficient to cover losses suffered by FTX customers. In addition, the appeal argues that the $11 billion forfeiture violates the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which bars excessive fines.

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Policy and Regulation

3 months agoNews Editor

US government sold confiscated Anthropic stake tied to Ellison and Singh

The US government has sold Anthropic shares confiscated from Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh, two close associates of former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, to existing Anthropic investors in 2025. The identity of the buyers, the sale price, and the amount ultimately received by the government have not been disclosed. A court had previously ordered the forfeiture of the two holdings, and the government took possession of the shares in February and April 2025. Ellison and Singh had invested $10 million and $40 million, respectively, in Anthropic’s 2022 Series B round. As Anthropic’s valuation climbed, the value of those holdings rose sharply. UCLA professor Olav Sorenson estimated that, based on Anthropic’s stated $96.5 billion valuation in May this year, the combined stake was worth about $4.17 billion to $5.03 billion. If Anthropic were to go public at a $2 trillion valuation, the stake could be worth roughly $5.44 billion. It remains unclear what price the government actually received. Estimates suggest proceeds may have ranged from about $250 million to $1.1 billion depending on when the sale took place in 2025. As of the end of June 2026, the proceeds did not appear to have entered the FTX bankruptcy estate. FTX victim representative Sunil Kavuri said the money should be used to compensate victims, while the US Department of Justice said victim compensation from forfeited assets remains a priority but details of the sale and allocation are confidential.

1210

FTX

3 months agoNews Editor

U.S. sold forfeited Anthropic stakes linked to Ellison and Singh, but sale terms remain undisclosed

The U.S. government previously seized Anthropic shares held by two key allies of former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried — Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh — and sold those stakes to existing Anthropic investors in 2025. Even so, the identities of the buyers, the sale price, and the amount ultimately received by the government have not been disclosed. A court had earlier ruled that Ellison and Singh must forfeit their Anthropic holdings. The U.S. government took control of their shares in February and April 2025, respectively. The two had originally invested $10 million and $40 million in Anthropic’s 2022 Series B round. As Anthropic’s valuation climbed sharply, the value of those stakes rose with it. UCLA professor Olav Sorenson estimated that, based on the company’s stated $96.5 billion valuation in May this year, the combined holdings were worth about $4.17 billion to $5.03 billion. If Anthropic were to go public at a $2 trillion valuation in the future, the stakes could be worth around $5.44 billion. It also remains unclear how much the government realized from the sale. Estimates cited in the report suggest proceeds could have ranged from roughly $250 million to $1.1 billion depending on when in 2025 the transaction took place. As of the end of June 2026, those proceeds did not appear to have entered the FTX bankruptcy estate.

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