A Chinese woman has been convicted in Britain following what police have described as the world’s largest ever cryptocurrency seizure, valued at more than £5.5 billion.
Zhimin Qian, 47, also known as Yadi Zhang, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to charges of illegally acquiring and holding vast sums of bitcoin.
The Metropolitan Police said Qian was behind a massive fraud in China between 2014 and 2017, during which more than 128,000 victims were cheated out of their savings. Police confirmed that at least 61,000 bitcoins have been seized in the case.
“Between 2014–2017, Zhang orchestrated a large-scale fraud in China through defrauding over 128,000 victims and went on to store the illegally obtained funds in bitcoin assets,” the Met said in a statement.
Qian entered the UK in September 2018 using false documents. According to investigators, she attempted to launder the proceeds by purchasing property with the help of an accomplice, Jian Wen.
Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, who led the investigation, said: “Today marks the result of years of painstaking work. When our team located Zhimin Qian, she had been evading justice for five years, and her arrest triggered a complex investigation requiring evidence from multiple jurisdictions and the careful review of thousands of documents.”
Will Lyne, Head of the Met’s Economic and Cybercrime Command, added: “This is one of the largest money laundering cases in UK history and among the highest-value cryptocurrency cases globally.”
The investigation uncovered compelling evidence linking the seized cryptoassets to criminal activity, police said.
Wen, a 44-year-old former takeaway worker, helped Qian launder the illicit funds. She moved from living above a restaurant to a “multi-million pound rented house” in north London, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Wen was jailed for six years and eight months last year after prosecutors linked her to suspiciously expensive purchases, including properties in Dubai worth more than £500,000 and cryptocurrency valued at more than £300 million.
The CPS said: “Met investigators proved she had been involved in facilitating the movement of a cryptocurrency wallet, which contained 150 bitcoin. At the relevant time this was valued at £1.7m.”
Qian remains in custody ahead of her sentencing, with a date yet to be confirmed.
