High Court Orders Return of US$17.6m Worth Bitcoin

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 – The High Court has ordered the government to return 497.82 bitcoin, valued at US$17.6 million based on 2023 valuations, to nine individuals who were victims of an investment scheme promising daily returns of one per cent.

Justice Arief Emran Arifin ruled in favour of the claimants, finding they had successfully proven they were deceived into depositing a combined 362.04 BTC into a Bitkingdom cryptocurrency wallet between 2015 and 2016.

The court heard that the bitcoin was later transferred from the Bitkingdom wallet to cryptocurrency wallets linked to Fadino Khairuman and Asyran Ismail, from which the assets were eventually seized.

Bitcoin Return

In his judgment, Arief said the claimants were not seeking repayment of a debt but were asserting ownership of bitcoin obtained from them through fraudulent representations.

He said evidence showed the digital assets had undergone a “layering process” through multiple transactions.

The court further ordered the seized bitcoin to be distributed among the nine claimants according to their respective deposits, with individual shares ranging from 0.68 per cent to 11.7 per cent of the total holdings.

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