She lived a life of luxury that earned her the nickname “goddess of wealth”, but Chinese businesswoman Qian Zhimin now faces a long jail sentence after police made the UK’s largest-ever cryptocurrency seizure of Bitcoin worth over US$6 billion.
The 47-year-old, who used the alias Zhang Yadi, defrauded more than 128,000 victims through a scheme in China from 2014-17 and stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets.
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.
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. She faces up to 14 years in prison.
A Malaysian accomplice, Ling Seng Hok, also 47, admitted to money laundering at the same court earlier and is also due to be sentenced. 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 US$2 billion.
Qian is believed to have coordinated a Ponzi scheme, which pays out to investors using funds from new entrants.
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 £23-million London mansion.
Police surveillance of Ling led to her arrest in April 2024, and cash, gold and cryptocurrencies totalling £11 million were seized.
Before the arrest, London police made what they believe to be the largest cryptocurrency seizure in history: more than 61,000 Bitcoins, worth over US$6 billion at current rates.
William Glover of law firm Fieldfisher said the case was “possibly the largest legal case of its kind in terms of value involving an individual and not a corporate”. Some of his clients had suffered enormous personal losses that had affected their lives, marriages and families, he said.
According to Jackson Ng of Duan & Duan, who is representing other investors, the defendant organised public events while claiming to have government support. People who were not seasoned investors and were not “going to check everything” were drawn in and exploited, he said.
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. The promised return on their investment stopped being paid out in 2017. Their daughter has now broken off all contact with them, Ng said.
Details of a compensation scheme proposed by the British authorities are still being thrashed out in London’s High Court in civil proceedings.
Around 1,300 alleged victims have come forward, according to sources close to the case. (AFP)
