US and UK Regulators Secure Multimillion-Dollar Judgments in Crypto Fraud Recoveries

Regulators and prosecutors in the United States and the United Kingdom are finalizing confiscation orders and judgments to claw back illicitly acquired digital assets. Court filings and regulatory announcements from September 2026 detail parallel efforts by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and the UK Crown Prosecution Service to recover funds from historical cryptocurrency fraud schemes and internal thefts ¹²⁴. At the time of writing, $BTC trades at $83,170, adding significant fiat-denominated value to legacy seizures of the asset.

SEC Finalizes Judgments Against BitConnect Promoters

The US Securities and Exchange Commission secured final judgments against three individuals involved in promoting BitConnect and its unregistered lending program ¹. The judgments, entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York between July and September 2026, conclude litigation that the agency initiated on May 28, 2021 ¹.

The SEC alleged that from June 2017 to January 2018, Trevon Brown, Craig Grant, and Michael Noble offered and sold securities without registering the offerings or operating as registered broker-dealers ¹. The court ordered the three defendants to pay a combined total of over $5.7 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties ¹.

On July 17, 2026, the court ordered Noble to pay $1,074,984.36, which includes $731,281.00 in disgorgement ¹. This followed an earlier partial judgment on August 12, 2021, that permanently enjoined Noble from participating in digital asset securities offerings ¹. On August 7, 2026, the court entered a default judgment against Grant, ordering him to pay $2,680,732.84 and permanently barring him from similar marketing programs ¹. Finally, on September 9, 2026, the court entered a consent judgment against Brown, requiring a payment of $1,986,465.15 ¹.

UK High Court Navigates Billions in Seized Bitcoin

In the United Kingdom, the Director of Public Prosecutions secured the recovery of Bitcoin valued at several billion pounds sterling linked to fraudulent activity orchestrated by Zhimin Qian ³. The assets are now the subject of claims under section 281 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 by individuals asserting proprietary interests in the seized digital assets ³.

The UK High Court is currently determining whether English law, Chinese law, or a combination thereof will apply to the substantive legal issues surrounding the victims' claims ³. According to the agreed assumed facts in the case, Qian established Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology Co Limited in March 2014 in China, orchestrating approximately ten Ponzi schemes between 2014 and July 2017 ³. These schemes targeted Chinese nationals, collecting approximately 40.2 billion Chinese yuan, or roughly £4.1 billion, from over 128,409 investment contracts ³.

The promotional materials for the schemes promised returns in Chinese currency or digital assets and falsely claimed operations in various international jurisdictions, including the UK and the Cayman Islands ³. Victims made payments via point-of-sale transactions, cash, and bank transfers within China ³. In July 2017, Chinese law enforcement froze the personal accounts used by Qian's assistants to receive investor funds ³. Qian fled China for Myanmar in July 2017 before arriving in London in September 2017, where she has since resided ³.

UK Authorities Confiscate Officer and Scammer Assets

UK authorities also utilized the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to recover funds from domestic fraud and theft cases. On September 28, 2026, at Southwark Crown Court, confiscation orders were issued against Raymondip Bedi and Patrick Mavanga ². Bedi was ordered to pay £603,404.28, and Mavanga was ordered to pay £247,997.99 ².

The FCA reported that between February 2017 and June 2019, Bedi and Mavanga operated a scheme through entities such as CCX Capital and Astaria Group LLP, defrauding at least 65 investors of £1,541,799 by offering fake cryptoasset opportunities ². Both men were sentenced in July 2025 to extended prison terms ². The FCA stated it will ensure the recovered funds are returned to the victims ². Failure to pay within three months will result in additional prison time for both men ².

In a separate action, the Crown Prosecution Service secured a confiscation order for £1,810,678.93 against Paul Chowles, a former National Crime Agency officer ⁴. Chowles, who was dismissed from the NCA in July 2025, stole 50 Bitcoin seized during an investigation into the Silk Road 2.0 dark web marketplace ⁴. At the time of the theft, the 50 Bitcoin were valued at approximately £60,000 ⁴. Chowles transferred the assets from a confiscated wallet and attempted to obfuscate the transaction trail ⁴.

Authorities recovered 30 of the stolen Bitcoin, the value of which was included in the final £1.8 million confiscation order due to the asset's significant price appreciation ⁴. Chowles previously pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering and was sentenced to five years and six months in prison in July 2025 ⁴.

Implications

The simultaneous finalization of judgments in the US and UK demonstrates a maturation in post-conviction asset recovery processes for digital assets. The application of the UK's Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in both the FCA and CPS cases illustrates how existing legal frameworks are being utilized to force the repatriation of fiat value derived from historical crypto thefts, even accounting for the asset's price appreciation since the original crimes ²⁴. The SEC's final judgments close a multi-year litigation effort against secondary promoters of unregistered digital asset offerings, establishing concrete financial penalties ¹.

What to Watch

The UK High Court's impending decision on the applicable law in the Director of Public Prosecutions v Zhimin Qian case will set a critical precedent for cross-border asset recovery. The determination of whether English or Chinese law governs the proprietary claims of the fraud victims will heavily influence how the billions of pounds worth of seized Bitcoin are eventually distributed under section 281 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 ³. Failure by Bedi and Mavanga to meet their confiscation order payments by late December 2026 will trigger extended custodial sentences ².