Ping Fai Yuen, who is a U.K. resident, has accused his estranged wife of stealing a little over 2,323 bitcoin (worth around $172 million) from him in court documents. The theft is said to have taken place in 2023 when the spouse used CCTV cameras to gain access to the backup passphrase associated with a crypto hardware wallet where the bitcoin was stored. “The Claimant’s case is straightforward,” reads a U.K. court filing from last week regarding the more recent spousal theft case. “At a time when divorce was contemplated his (now estranged) wife, the First Defendant, obtained his seed phrase and “stole” the Bitcoin; either acting alone or with her sister (the Second Defendant). She did so by covertly recording the Claimant to obtain the seed phrase.”
The court filing adds that Yuen was notified of his wife’s intention to steal the bitcoin by his eldest daughter, which prompted the bitcoin holder to install audio surveillance equipment of his own in an effort to collect evidence of guilt. Additionally, the court filing contends that evidence of the wife’s guilt was collected via this audio equipment. In one of the alleged recordings, the wife is quoted as discussing the issues related to cashing out the bitcoin to traditional fiat currencies. “You claim that your money was Bitcoin, such large amount, so many questions, how are you going to explain about it? Such large amount even 10 Banks which it’s not enough to put them into, you cannot explain how you obtain such large amount,” the defendant allegedly states in the recording. Discussions were also allegedly recorded regarding the potential cashout of the bitcoin in Hong Kong, where the main defendant is a resident. The court filing says that upon original discovery of the alleged theft, Yuen confronted and assaulted the key defendant, for which he spent weeks in jail before being released on bail. He later pled guilty to three charges and was convicted, according to the filing.
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