A London court ruling has increased the U.K. government's chances of retaining most of 3.8 billion pounds ($5 billion) in seized bitcoin, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The decision concerns 61,000 BTC seized during an investigation into Zhimin Qian, who pleaded guilty to defrauding thousands of people in China. The court ruled that Chinese law, rather than English law, must govern the victims' property claims because the underlying fraud occurred entirely in China. The ruling does not determine ownership of the bitcoin, but it narrows the victims' path to recovery. The victims' lawyers are appealing.