On Friday, May 24th, a British woman of Chinese descent was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison by a London court for laundering money, converting bitcoins into cash and real estate, involving an amount of £5 billion.
Prosecutors stated that Wen Jian, between 2014 and 2017, helped conceal a large sum of stolen funds from a wealth management fraud scheme involving nearly 130,000 Chinese investors.
This fraud scheme was orchestrated by a Chinese woman known to Wen Jian as Zhang Yadi. Zhang Yadi’s real name is Qian Zhimin.
Qian Zhimin, wanted by Beijing for fraud, is suspected of embezzling £5 billion from a fraud scheme in China, converting the money into bitcoins, and arriving in London in 2017 under a false identity. The scheme had over 130,000 victims. Qian Zhimin is currently missing.
Wen Jian was not charged with involvement in the fraudulent activities of the wealth management scheme.
Working at a Chinese fast-food restaurant, living in an ordinary residential building, Wen Jian started working as a caregiver in 2017 and moved into a luxurious six-bedroom mansion in North London with Qian Zhimin.
After Qian Zhimin’s arrival in the UK, Wen Jian assisted in converting bitcoins into cash, jewelry, luxury goods, and real estate to conceal the true source of the funds.
Having a close relationship with Qian Zhimin, Wen Jian attempted to purchase two properties in London worth $15 million and $30 million respectively but failed to provide sufficient evidence of the funding sources. Wen Jian later claimed that Qian Zhimin engaged in bitcoin mining and gifted her the bitcoins.
Wen Jian was arrested in 2021.
In 2018, during a search of the estate where Qian Zhimin resided in London, the police found devices storing a large number of encrypted bitcoin wallets.
As part of the investigation, British authorities seized a wallet containing over 61,000 bitcoins, one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures globally to date.
At that time, Qian Zhimin was at the residence but later fled the UK.
During Wen Jian’s trial, prosecutors revealed that the 61,000 bitcoins were valued at approximately £1.4 billion when authorities gained access in 2021. The value of these bitcoins now exceeds £3 billion.
42-year-old Wen Jian denied three money laundering charges and provided evidence that she was unaware of Qian Zhimin’s criminal activities.
Wen Jian claimed to believe that Qian Zhimin was a wealthy businesswoman who accumulated wealth through jewelry businesses, real estate investments, and legitimate bitcoin mining.
In March, a jury at Southwark Crown Court found Wen Jian guilty of one money laundering charge.
Chinese media reported that Qian Zhimin is the fugitive mastermind of the 2017 Tianjin Lantian Ge Rui Electronics Technology Co., Ltd.’s illegal fundraising case, involving over 43 billion yuan, with nearly 130,000 victims, mostly elderly individuals across China.
In September, a hearing will be held in the UK to determine the disposition of the seized 61,000 bitcoins. British media reported that British authorities have not received asset recovery requests from Beijing.
Under UK law, if no other party is entitled to the assets, half of the confiscated funds will be given to the police, and the other half to the Home Office.