Man claims estranged wife ‘filmed passwords to steal £180m of bitcoin’
A businessman claimed that his wife unknowingly spied him entering his Bitcoin passwords, who then broke into his accounts and stole £180 million worth of cryptocurrency.
Supreme Court documents show Ping Fai Yuen accused his estranged wife, Fun Yung Li, of stealing his currency while the two were discussing divorce.
He claims he installed CCTV at Ms Yuen’s home and secretly recorded her sitting at the family home in August 2023, hiding the password.
After being warned about an alleged attempt to steal the currency by his daughter, Mr Yuen set up audio recording equipment that captured Ms Yuen “discussing the CCTV installed in the house”.
He is suing his estranged wife and sister for Bitcoin, whose value fluctuated between £160 million and £180 million over the course of the case, according to court documents.
He claims the records show beyond reasonable doubt that Ms. Yuen was the person who “obtained the seed sentence and exfiltrated the bitcoin.”
By August 2023, the cryptocurrency was stored at an address on the “blockchain” protected by a private key, according to court documents. This key was stored in a “cold wallet,” meaning it was not connected to the internet, on a physical device called a “Trezor.”
Trezor was also protected by a six-digit PIN. But anyone with access to Mr. Yuen’s “basic sentence” (a string of 24 randomly generated words) could use it to recreate the wallet on a separate device.
When Mr. Yuen first discovered that the currency was missing, he confronted Ms. Yuen and attacked her. He was found guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault in September 2024.
She reported the missing cryptocurrency to the police, and Ms. Yuen was arrested in December 2023. Officers searched the home and seized several watches, ten cold wallets and five recovery seeds. He was released on bail and police later confirmed they would take no further action until new evidence was obtained.
Mr Yuen claims his recordings captured his estranged wife discussing Bitcoin at home. One read: “Bitcoin was transferred to me, but does it appear that you bought it?” while in another he discusses the issue of buying things using virtual money in Hong Kong, where he comes from.
Mr. Yuen claims that his wife transferred the cryptocurrency to 71 other blockchain addresses.
In her affidavit, Ms Yuen told the court she was “not aware of any information that was required to be provided in response to the matters…”
Mr Justice Cotter said Mr Yuen had a “very high probability of success” and described Ms Yuen’s audio recording transcripts as “damning”.
“He had many opportunities to tell his side of the story but refused to do so,” he added.
Mr. Yuen is seeking the return of Bitcoin or its equivalent value and a worldwide freeze on Ms. Yuen and her aunt’s crypto assets.
