By Upmanyu Trivedi
A Chinese woman described as a “super villain” who orchestrated a multibillion dollar investment fraud to buy Bitcoin was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in jail by a London judge.
The 47-year-old lived a life of luxury renting expensive mansions and plotting to become the monarch of a self-proclaimed nation “Liberland” until she was arrested last year, prosecutors said.
Zhimin Qian, who evaded arrest in China after fleeing on a moped to the Myanmar border, travelled through southeast Asia and Europe using fake passports before settling in Britain under a fake name — Yadi Zhang. She was arrested as part of the largest Bitcoin seizure ever by British police — now worth $US6.4 billion ($9.8 billion).
Qian was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to charges of possessing and transacting in criminal property in August. Her assistant, Seng Hok Ling, 47, was also jailed for 4 years and 11 months for his role in dealing with criminal money.
The 47-year-old lived a life of luxury renting expensive mansions and plotting to become the monarch of a self-proclaimed nation “Liberland” until she was arrested last year, prosecutors said.
Qian was instrumental in a fraud that helped generate that illicit cash, while Ling worked to help her move money into cryptocurrency accounts, prosecutors said. Ling was not involved in the Chinese fraud and was not aware of Qian’s crimes, her lawyer said in court Tuesday.
“Zhimin Qian, you were the architect of this offending from its inception to its conclusion. The scale of your money laundering is unprecedented,” Judge Sally-Ann Hales said handing down the sentence. “Your motive was one of pure greed.”
The seizure of 61,000 Bitcoin in 2018 during a money laundering investigation was the largest haul ever of cryptocurrency by British police. Now a UK government agency is looking to return the Bitcoin to duped investors — although no details about what that program might look like are available.
The case, which involved what was then “the single largest confirmed cryptocurrency seizure in the world” was the most complex economic crime investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service, it said in a statement after the verdict.
“Organised crime groups are using cryptocurrency to move, hide, and invest the profits of serious crime – but every crypto transaction leaves a trace,” said Will Lyne, The Met’s head of economic and cybercrime.
Qian was behind an unlicensed Chinese investment company that collected 40 billion renminbi ($US5.6 billion) from about 128,000 investors across China between 2014 and 2017, the prosecutors said in the London court before she was sentenced.
The seizure of 61,000 Bitcoin in 2018 during a money laundering investigation was the largest haul ever of cryptocurrency by British police.Credit: Bloomberg
She “accepts her conviction and the mistakes that led to it,” Roger Sahota, her lawyer, said after the sentencing. “She never set out to commit fraud but recognises her investment schemes were fraudulent and misled those who trusted her.”
When Chinese authorities raided an event organised by the firm in 2017, Qian escaped and travelled to London through southeast Asian nations using a fake passport from St. Kitts and Nevis, according to the prosecutors.
In the UK she hired Jian Wen, a fast-food worker, who was sentenced last year to more than six years in jail for helping her launder money. Qian used Wen and Ling to rent expensive houses, buy jewelry and properties in Dubai and spend tens of thousands of pounds on lavish shopping sprees, the prosecutors said.
“Lied and schemed”
“You lied and schemed, all the while seeking to benefit yourself,” the judge said referring to Qian. “With the assistance of people you recruited and whose loyalty you bought, you succeeded in evading justice for over seven years.”
Qian “spent lavishly and travelled extensively” avoiding countries which had extradition treaties with China, the judge said.
A city law firm first raised concerns to police about an attempt to buy properties in London using suspicious Bitcoin. Police subsequently seized the 61,000 Bitcoin and Wen was later arrested. Qian though, remained on the run living in luxurious mansions in Scotland and York, prosecutors said.
Wen was still facing trial in February 2024, when a transfer of 8.2 Bitcoin into a cryptocurrency wallet that was being watched by police led to Qian’s arrest from her mansion in York.
There the police found scattered across the house a number of digital devices with wallets that carried cryptoassets worth more than £60 million ($121 million) and about £48,000 in cash along with jewellery.
She wanted to buy a big house and sell £200,000 in Bitcoin a month to pay for her expenses in order to become “the monarch of Liberland,” prosecutors alleged. Liberland is a strip of no-man’s land sandwiched between Croatia and Serbia on the western bank of the Danube River
After the arrest, Qian declined to comment to most questions by the police but said “she felt she would die soon, and it was her last chance to spend,” the prosecutors said.
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