Innocent or not doesn't matter here - he chose to pay off his friend with money returned from "Chen". These 40.000 belong to US and WE didn't agree to give Zhou Tong a loan!
Well, technically I guess the 40,000 USD belongs to Bitcoinica. And the operators of Bitcoinica apparently didn't really care about recovering those funds anyway.
Also consider:
1. The amount recovered is substantially less than stolen - we don't know in detail what happened here (there is enough room for a profit margin).
2. Chen A MILLIONAIRE didn't replace the cost of his laundering activity
3. Zhou protects Chens identity
4. Zhou strictly rejects to provide information about his 40.000 AurumXchange transaction to simply unlock these funds and repay the 40.000 Dollar loan he took from us without permission.
Especially 4. makes his promise to repay from future profits implausible. It's time to put the screws on.
Zhou addressed some of those concerns to me so I will quote them here.
on #1:
Bitcoinica announced the exchange rate to be $5.1 per BTC. At this rate, all funds have been recovered. I personally feel unfair too, that's why I suggest you to take actions against Bitcoinica.
on #3:
I'm not protecting his identity. I just deem it to be unnecessary at this point. He is not running away (AFAIK he doesn't even have a passport), and the fund return is pending Bitcoinica's liquidation.
on #4:
I didn't take possession of any part of the stolen funds myself. The $40,000 is still with Chen Jianhai because I was allowed to not facilitate the return of this portion until the AurumXchange issue sorted out. I have asked the creditors to push AurumXchange to transfer all the locked funds to Bitcoinica as well. You can do the same if you like.