While the price of Bitcoin continues to oscillate at a high level, a family dispute that looks like a movie plot is playing out in the UK High Court! Fiery Lawson (formerly known as Joseph Yuen), once labeled as the "Junior Stockbroker" by the Hong Kong media, is now the plaintiff, accusing his estranged wife of installing a hidden CCTV in their home, secretly filming him entering his cold wallet password and a 24-word seed phrase, and transferring 2,323 Bitcoins, with a market value of £180 million (about HK$1.88 billion).
This case not only exposes the vulnerability of the seemingly foolproof security mechanism of the cold wallet, but also makes people ask why a financial KOL, who used to make a fortune by investing in stories, has been reduced to a "stolen" party in the stage of divorce and even suffered from domestic violence. In this article, we will look atThe story begins with the incident in which Fire Prairie Forest was accused of cheating in Hong Kong, and gives us a real insight into the circumstances surrounding the theft of HK$1.9 billion in Bitcoin!
Hong Kong's teenage stockbroker, Mr. Fiery Prayson's path to investing and controversial history.
The story of Fiery Prayson begins in 2003. In that year, he had just graduated from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a degree in accounting, and borrowed 500,000 dollars in bank loans to buy PetroChina (0857), allegedly following Warren Buffett's investment philosophy, and cashed in about 30 million dollars at the high level in 2007, laying the foundation for his first bucket of gold. Afterwards, he hosted Commercial Radio's "Star Fire Starts a Prairie Fire" and DBC Financial Radio's "Fire Speed Lamp", and published books such as "I Borrowed My First $10 Million from Warren Buffett" and "I Received Warren Buffett's Reply Letter", and was once dubbed as the "Young Uncle Four", with his investment territory spanning the property market in Japan, Thailand's infrastructure and crypto-mining contracts.
However, behind the glory comes controversy. 2017 to 2018, he vigorously promoted the "doll machine" investment program, claiming that each machine priced at 85,000 to 100,000 Hong Kong dollars, if the bitcoin remains high, a stable return of 10,000 yuan per month, as if to collect the rent of the property. The operator is Mighty Lucky International Limited, who posted an analysis on Facebook, attracting a large number of followers, and some people even took out loans to increase their stakes. After the price of Bitcoin plummeted by 90%, some investors only received a few tens of dollars a month, and the location of the machine was unknown, resulting in heavy losses. The Democratic Party's Deputy Spokesman on Financial Policy, Mr. Yuen Hoi-man, received more than 100 requests for assistance at that time, and investors reported the case to the police for handling, and the amount involved was estimated to be more than $30 million.
During the same period, he also partnered with SkyTech to promote a virtual currency vending machine and the HE15 cloud mining contract, and was accused by investors of failing to adequately disclose the risks and encouraging lending into the market. Some media searches revealed that his company signature was identical to that of SkyMachine's offshore company representative. When the crypto market entered a bear market, investors suffered significant losses and lodged complaints. These events have turned Fiery Prayson from a "get-rich-quick mentor" into a controversial figure among netizens, with some calling him a "half-truth, half-false, using Bitcoin's appreciation to build up his reputation before pushing up his risky projects".
This Hong Kong experience is a darkly humorous prequel to today's case. Back then, he started his career as an investment story, accompanied by misleading accusations. Today, in the UK High Court, he is the one who claimed that Bitcoin was stolen. In a Facebook discussion, a netizen said, "The wind and the water have changed, and the man who said, 'I borrowed my first 10 million dollars from Warren Buffett' is now the one who had his wallet stolen. This contrast is not only a change in one's fate, but also a reflection of the risk blind spot in the crypto market where the identities of "promoters" and "holders" have changed.
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Daughter's revelations, audio evidence, and the complete process of 71 forwarding addresses.
In July 2023, Fire Prao Sen and his wife Fun Yung Li were in the process of divorcing. According to his testimony to the court, his eldest daughter was the first to tip off that her mother was trying to steal Bitcoin. He then installed a recording device in his home.
At the end of July, he recorded key conversations:
"The bitcoin has transferred to me but can it be seen that you have taken it?"
"It is OK, take all of it."
The wife also discussed with her aunt the risk that large sums of money might trigger a money laundering investigation and be referred to the police.
In early August, Bitcoin literally disappeared. 2,323 coins were transferred from his Trezor cold wallet to 71 different blockchain addresses. After confronting his wife, a physical altercation ensued, and he was arrested and pleaded guilty to one count of actual bodily harm and two counts of common assault, and was remanded for a few weeks before being released on bail. in December, he filed a formal police report, and his wife was arrested. Police searched his home and seized 10 cold wallets (one of which was the same model as the plaintiff's Trezor), five sets of recovery seeds, and watches valued at more than £250,000. The criminal investigation is currently on hold pending new evidence.
The wife, who has returned to Hong Kong, denied everything through an affidavit, saying she had no knowledge of the transfer of assets. Mr Justice Cotter described the recordings as "the transcripts are damning" and said the plaintiffs "demonstrated a very high probability of success". Due to the volatility of the Bitcoin price, the judge recommended a formal trial as soon as possible. The wife and her sister's crypto assets have been frozen.
The whole process clearly demonstrates the typical path of "home invaders": first, they obtain seed phrases through surveillance, then disperse and move to avoid tracking, and finally, they use cross-border residence to create obstacles to enforcement. Netizens pointed out in the discussion: "Even if we win the lawsuit, if the defendant and the assets are in Hong Kong, we will have to fight another round of lawsuits before we can enforce the lawsuit. This is the biggest pain point in cross-border recovery of crypto assets.
How do cold wallets and seed phrases work?
So, how does cold wallet work?
Simply put, it's a completely offline hardware device (like Trezor), and the private key never touches the network. The user is protected by a 6-digit PIN code, but the real "master key" is a seed phrase consisting of 24 random English words. Anyone with this set of words can take full control of the asset, even if they rebuild the wallet on another device.
In the Fire Prairie Mori case, his wife used the hidden CCTV to capture him typing in the seed phrase, and then rebuilt his wallet on another device, transferring all the coins with one click. The problem is not a technical loophole, but a double failure of physical security and human trust. Many people think that "cold wallets are perfectly safe", while ignoring the risks of exposure in everyday use - such as entering seeds at home, or copying and storing slips of paper.
Is Bitcoin "property"? Winning is not the same as getting paid.
This case in the UK High Court comes at a critical time in the evolution of property law. Traditionally, Bitcoin was not considered physical property, but the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025 has officially recognized cryptocurrencies as 'Class III property'. Judges have rejected some of the traditional property transfer arguments, but have allowed cases to proceed on alternative legal bases, suggesting that the law is gradually adapting to crypto realities.
However, enforcement is the real challenge. The wife is in Hong Kong and her assets may be scattered or hidden. Even if Fire Liaoson wins the case, he still needs to apply for recognition and enforcement of the judgment in the Hong Kong court. In addition to the anonymity of the Bitcoin addresses and the difficulty of tracking them along the chain, once the funds have been transferred to 71 addresses and never moved again, the chances of recovery are greatly reduced. This also explains why the police criminal investigation is on hold - there is no "new evidence" to prove who actually controls those addresses.
Critics point out that civil litigation is costly and time-consuming for the average holder. The analytical point of view is even more blunt: this reflects an information asymmetry - KOLs like Prairie Forest know how to protect themselves with recordings, while the average retail investor may not even notice a seed leak.
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