Hok Seng Ling Returns £5.6 Million in UK Crypto Laundering Case

Hok Seng Ling has returned £5.6 million to the UK government under a confiscation order tied to cryptocurrency laundering, and authorities also recovered £1,990 in interest.

An English court ordered Ling to forfeit £5,603,305 after he pleaded guilty to money-laundering offenses at Southwark Crown Court in November 2025. He was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison. Most of the recovered sum came from cryptocurrency seized when he was arrested, completing the order.

Ling, 48, had worked as a butler for Qian. The wider investment scheme ran from 2014 to 2017, involved more than 128,000 Chinese investors and was valued at £5.5 billion. Proceeds from the scheme were converted into Bitcoin (BTC).

The recovery is separate from claims involving a seizure of more than 61,000 Bitcoin (BTC). On Oct. 12, London’s High Court ruled that Chinese law would govern victims’ claims to those coins. The ruling did not determine ownership or how any recovery would be distributed.