Bitcoin Queen convicted of money laundering, British-Chinese sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison

Source: CHINAPRESS

Jian Wen, a 42-year-old British Chinese woman described as the "Queen of Bitcoin", was convicted of assisting in money laundering and was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison on Friday (24th).

The 5 billion pounds (about 30 billion ringgit) involved in the case was defrauded from 128,000 investors in China by her accomplices. Although Jian Wen did not participate in the fraud, she helped conceal the source of funds and exchanged Bitcoin for cash and purchased real estate.

The prosecution pointed out that the British police seized an electronic wallet with more than 61,000 Bitcoins in an investigation in 2021, which was one of the largest batches of virtual currencies seized by law enforcement agencies worldwide. It was worth about 1.4 billion pounds at the time and its current value has risen to more than 3 billion pounds. The money was obtained by another woman from fraud in China between 2014 and 2017.

Just a few weeks after Jian Wen met the other party in London, she transformed herself into a wealthy person, including living in a London luxury house with a monthly rent of 17,000 pounds and driving a Mercedes RV. Her son later went to the UK from China to attend a school with a tuition fee of 6,000 pounds (about 36,011 ringgit) per term.

Jian Wen also tried to buy super luxury houses worth 23.5 million pounds (about 140 million ringgit) and 12.5 million pounds (about 75.02 million ringgit) in London. The police began to suspect the source of her funds and launched a money laundering investigation. Jian Wen failed to explain the source of the funds and was finally arrested. Jianwen denied money laundering and stressed that she knew nothing about the case and only thought that the person who gave her the money was a wealthy man.

The jury at Southwark Crown Court found Jianwen guilty of one of the charges in March this year, but failed to reach a verdict on the other two charges. Judge Hales sentenced Jianwen to 6 years and 8 months in prison on Friday for one charge of money laundering.