{
  "id": 15846079,
  "title": "Court orders Malaysia to return 176 bitcoins to 9 crypto scam victims",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/21/court-orders-malaysia-to-return-176-bitcoins-to-9-crypto-scam-victims",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-21T03:47:47.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "VnExpress International",
    "slug": "vnexpress-international",
    "url": "https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/crime/court-orders-malaysia-to-return-176-bitcoins-to-9-crypto-scam-victims-5134688.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Malaysia's court has ordered the return of 176 bitcoins to nine scam victims who were defrauded in the Bitkingdom investment scheme. The coins are part of a total of 497.82 bitcoins, valued at $17.64 million as of November 1, 2023, seized from two digital wallets in the scam operation. The nine victims deposited a combined total of 362.04 bitcoins into the scheme between 2015 and 2016, when a single bitcoin traded below $1,000. Justice Mohd Arief Emran Arifin ruled that the victims were entitled to a proportionate share of about 176.18 bitcoins, as their losses exceeded the amount of seized bitcoins. The remaining 321.64 bitcoins, worth approximately $26.2 million, will be forfeited to the government under Malaysia's anti-money laundering law. Each of the nine victims will receive a share of the seized bitcoins in proportion to their deposits, ranging from 0.68% to 11.7%. The judge found that the victims were deceived into depositing their bitcoins into Bitkingdom, promising daily returns of about 1%. The coins were then transferred through several intermediary wallets before ending up in the wallets belonging to Mohammad Fadino Khairuman and Arsyan Ismail. The court rejected the prosecution's argument that the victims could not establish a legitimate legal interest in the bitcoins due to their transfers through multiple wallets, ruling that all nine victims had a legitimate legal interest in the seized cryptocurrency.",
  "summary": "The High Court in Kuala Lumpur has ordered the Malaysian government to return about 176 bitcoin, now worth around US$14.3 million, to nine victims of a cryptocurrency investment scam.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}