Chinese national Zhimin Qian, alias Yadi Zhang, faces jail over a huge cryptocurrency seizure in Britain (-) <\/p>\n
She lived a life of luxury that earned her the nickname “goddess of wealth”, but Chinese businesswoman Zhimin Qian now faces a long jail sentence after police made the UK’s largest-ever cryptocurrency seizure of Bitcoin worth over $6 billion.<\/p>\n
The 47-year-old, who used the alias Yadi Zhang, defrauded more than 128,000 victims through a scheme in China from 2014-17 and stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets.<\/p>\n
Qian played a leading role in the scam.<\/p>\n
After fleeing China in 2018 using false documents, she came to the UK where she attempted to launder the proceeds, according to police and prosecutors.<\/p>\n
She faces up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n
The Chinese national, who pleaded guilty to acquiring and possessing criminal property on September 29, will be sentenced after a two-day hearing on Monday and Tuesday at London’s Southwark Crown Court.<\/p>\n
A Malaysian accomplice, Seng Hok Ling, also 47, admitted to money laundering at the same court earlier and is also due to be sentenced.<\/p>\n
Another accomplice, Jian Wen, was jailed for six years and eight months over her role in the scheme last year after being found with Bitcoin wallets worth over $2 billion.<\/p>\n
Qian is believed to have coordinated a Ponzi scheme, which pays out to investors using funds from new entrants.<\/p>\n
After converting a large portion of her victims’ money into Bitcoin, she set about laundering the funds in the UK through property purchases including a \u00a323-million ($30-million) London mansion.<\/p>\n
– Huge losses –<\/p>\n
Police surveillance of Qian’s co-defendant Ling led to her arrest in April 2024, and cash, gold and cryptocurrencies totalling \u00a311 million were seized.<\/p>\n
Before the arrest, London police made what they believe to be the largest cryptocurrency seizure in history: more than 61,000 Bitcoins, worth over $6 billion at current rates.<\/p>\n
William Glover of law firm Fieldfisher told AFP the case was “possibly the largest legal case of its kind in terms of value involving an individual and not a corporate”.<\/p>\n
Some of his clients had suffered enormous personal losses that had affected their lives, marriages and families, he said.<\/p>\n
According to Jackson Ng of Duan & Duan, who is representing other investors, the defendant organised public events while claiming to have government support.<\/p>\n
People who were not seasoned investors and were not “going to check everything” were drawn in and exploited, he said.<\/p>\n
One Chinese couple, office workers in their 40s, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars they had saved for their retirement and their daughter, after attending a presentation in 2016.<\/p>\n
The promised return on their investment stopped being paid out in 2017. Their daughter has now broken off all contact with them, Ng said.<\/p>\n
Fuelled by growing interest, Bitcoin, which was trading at around $3,600 at the end of 2018, is currently hovering around $100,000.<\/p>\n
Details of a compensation scheme proposed by the British authorities are still being thrashed out in London’s High Court in civil proceedings.<\/p>\n
Around 1,300 alleged victims have come forward, according to sources close to the case.<\/p>\n
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