Jim Sturman KC appears in landmark new cryptocurrency case

Jim Sturman KC, instructed by Jim Meyer and Richard Egan of Egan Meyer Solicitors, acts for Ping Fai Yuen who is suing his wife and sister in law for 2,323 BitCoin (worth between £160m and £180m) he claims they stole from him. The claim alleges that, at a time when divorce was contemplated, the claimant’s estranged wife and her sister set up secret cameras to covertly record his “seed phrase” (the 24-word master password), thereby enabling them to transfer the BitCoin to their own control.

In a ruling handed down on 10 March (following a hearing on 2 March 2026), Mr Justice Cotter granted the claimant’s application to amend the claim and refused the defendants’ application to strike out the claim brought for trespass to goods. However, the Court did strike out that part of the claim brought in the tort of conversion, ruling that intangible property (including cryptocurrency) could not be converted.

Mr Justice Cotter observed that the claimant had “demonstrated a very high probability of success” in the case against his wife and that “an early trial is necessary given the security threats to, and volatility of value of, the bitcoin.”

You can read the judgement here: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/KB/2026/532.html 

You can read some of the press coverage at:

• https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/wife-steal-bitcoin-spy-camera-cz8bxfcph 
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15651289/Wife-secret-cameras-steal-husbands-bitcoin-fortune.html
• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/man-wife-stolen-bitcoin-court-b2939719.html 
• https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/38536445/wife-filmed-husband-passwords-stole-bitcoin-sister-law/