The Largest Bitcoin Money Laundering Case in UK History! Involving £3 Billion Worth of Bitcoin, Chinese Woman Sentenced to 6 Years and 8 Months in Prison

On Friday, May 24, British media including the Daily Mail and Sky News reported that the Chinese woman behind the £3 billion fraud case was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison. This scheme defrauded 128,000 investors, and the Chinese woman spent lavishly at Harrods and attempted to purchase a £23 million mansion.

During their investigation, UK police seized over 61,000 bitcoins. Jian Wen (transliteration) was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison for money laundering on May 24. She had earlier caught the attention of UK police for trying to purchase a luxury mansion in London worth over £10 million.

Prosecutors stated that between 2014 and 2017, Wen helped conceal the origins of a large sum of stolen funds, which came from a wealth management fraud scheme involving nearly 130,000 Chinese investors. This fraud scheme was orchestrated by a Chinese woman named Yadi Zhang, whose real name is Zhimin Qian.

Zhimin Qian has been wanted in Beijing for fraud, accused of stealing £5 billion from a fraud scheme in China, converting the money into bitcoin, and arriving in London under a false identity in 2017. The scheme had up to 130,000 victims. Qian is currently missing.

According to reports, the 42-year-old Jian Wen had previously tried to purchase expensive properties in London, including a £23.5 million mansion with a swimming pool and another nearby property worth £12.5 million, which included a cinema and gym.

Police raided Wen's home and found a safe containing digital wallets with bitcoins worth over £1.4 billion at the time, which have now increased in value to around £3 billion.

This investigation became the largest cryptocurrency seizure in UK history.

Wen did not directly participate in the fraud but allegedly acted as a "white glove" to help disguise the source of funds, with some of the money used to buy cryptocurrency and transfer it overseas via laptops from China.

Last month, after a retrial, Wen was convicted of a money laundering offense involving 150 bitcoins, currently valued at nearly £8 million.

Presiding Judge Sall Ann Hales was scheduled to announce the sentencing on May 10 but delayed it due to a busy schedule, finally issuing the sentence two weeks later. In her latest ruling, she stated that Wen participated in a complex and major planned crime, sentencing her to 6 years and 8 months. The court learned that Wen, detained since March 2022, plans to appeal her conviction and sentence.

Wen insists she did not know the bitcoin came from fraudulent proceeds, claiming she was deceived by one of the fraudsters. She stated she helped run a legitimate jewelry company with branches in Singapore, Malaysia, and China.

According to the Daily Mail, Wen moved to the UK in 2007 and lived a modest life in Leeds from 2011 to 2017 before working at a Chinese takeaway in Abbey Wood, southeast London. She responded to an ad on Chinese social media app WeChat to work as a "housekeeper" for a woman claiming to be involved in diamond and antique trading worldwide.

After meeting Zhimin Qian at the Royal Garden Hotel, Wen and Qian paid a £40,000 deposit and moved into a Hampstead mansion with a monthly rent of £17,000 in September 2017. Wen drove a Mercedes and brought her son from China 18 months later, enrolling him in the nearby prestigious Heathside Preparatory School, while spending £30,000 monthly at Harrods.

During the trial, Wen admitted to handling some of the cryptocurrency but claimed she was unaware it was criminal proceeds.

Her defense lawyer, Mark Harrie, argued that Wen, coming from a low background, was also a victim, deceived and exploited by Qian. Prosecutor Gillian Jones countered that Wen's motive was to gain illegal financial benefits, not due to coercion, threats, or exploitation.

With the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF by US regulators, market enthusiasm is unprecedented. As of May 25, each bitcoin is worth nearly $69,000, making the value of this virtual currency asset around £3 billion.

The case is noteworthy for its involvement of large-scale transnational asset transfers and recovery efforts.

Professor Huang Feng of the G20 Anti-Corruption and Asset Recovery Research Center at Beijing Normal University previously analyzed that if Zhimin Qian claims the bitcoins are unrelated to her, the UK may pursue civil recovery proceedings, and Chinese investors should file civil lawsuits in the UK to claim ownership. If she claims the bitcoins as her legal assets and UK police find her guilty, the UK may confiscate the money criminally, and Chinese police can collaborate with UK authorities, providing evidence to prove the assets were criminal proceeds from China.