Chinese fugitive fraudster jailed in the UK over multi-billion crypto scam

A Chinese woman was jailed in the UK on Tuesday for more than 11 years for masterminding a bitcoin scam worth more than 5 billion pounds (€5.6 billion).

Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, pleaded guilty in September to illegally acquiring and possessing the cryptocurrency.

Her guilty plea followed a seven-year probe into global money laundering. The 47-year-old orchestrated a large-scale fraud in China between 2014 and 2017 by deceiving more than 128,000 victims and storing the stolen funds in bitcoin assets.

Qian then fled China, using false documents, and entered the UK, where she attempted to launder the illegal proceeds by purchasing property in late 2018. She was arrested last year after spending nearly six years on the run, according to British authorities.

The Metropolitan Police seized a total of 61,000 bitcoins from Qian, which it has described as the single largest confirmed cryptocurrency seizure in the world.

When she was convicted in September, the bitcoin stash was worth €6.3 billion. It is now valued at about €5.6 billion.

On Tuesday, Qian was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison at London's Southwark Crown Court.

"You were the architect of this offending from its inception to its conclusion," said Judge Sally-Ann Hales. "The scale of your money laundering is unprecedented. Your motive was one of pure greed."

Qian's accomplice, 47-year-old Malaysian national Seng Hok Ling, was jailed for four years and 11 months after pleading guilty to transferring criminal property.

Another Chinese woman, 43-year-old Jian Wen, was convicted last year for her role in the bitcoin fraud. Wen was jailed for six years and eight months.

"There is no doubt this is one of the largest and most complex economic crime investigations we have ever undertaken," said Will Lyne, the Metropolitan Police's head of economic and cybercrime command.

"Organised crime groups are using cryptocurrency to move, hide, and invest the profits of serious crime — but every crypto transaction leaves a trace," he added. "Our message is clear — criminal assets are not safe in the UK."