A woman has been convicted following a seven-year investigation which saw UK authorities seize more than $11.2 billion in Bitcoin.
On Monday, 47-year-old Zhimin Qian pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to acquiring and possessing criminal cryptocurrency property.
According to the UK Metropolitan Police (the Met), Qian was understood to have played a leading role in an investment scam which defrauded over 128,000 victims between 2014 and 2017.
After orchestrating her large-scale fraud racket out of China, Qian hoarded her “illegally obtained” funds in Bitcoin assets.
Using false documents, Qian – also known as Yadi Zhang – fled China and entered the UK where in September 2018 she attempted to funnel her proceeds into property purchases.
Authorities soon after conducted a raid of a Hampstead mansion where they seized devices holding 61,000 bitcoins – an amount now worth more than $11.2 billion (£5.5 billion).
“My thoughts are with the thousands of victims defrauded in this scheme,” said the Met’s head of economic and cybercrime command, Will Lyne.
“I hope this outcome acknowledges the harm these defendants inflicted.”
World’s largest crypto seizure
Despite authorities having nabbed Qian’s assets in late 2018, it wasn’t until early 2021 that the police realised the devices they’d seized were holding $2.85 billion (£1.4 billion) in illicitly acquired Bitcoin.
At the time of writing, that value has nearly quadrupled to £5.5bn – constituting what the Met said is “believed to be the single largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world”.
Qian and one of her associates were later arrested in April 2024, leading authorities to seize additional assets including cash, gold, cryptocurrency and “encrypted devices” now valued at $22.4 million (£11 million).
“Investigators [worked] tirelessly to build a case of evidence against her,” wrote Metropolitan police.
Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, who led the Met’s investigation, said Qian’s guilty plea marked 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,” said Grotto.
“These pleas reflect years of hard work across both the UK and China.”
The ‘goddess’ and her butlers
According to the BBC, investors who bought into Qian’s schemes knew little about her outside of her reputation as “the goddess of wealth”.
Though Qian was the primary promoter of her scam, she was largely assisted by Chinese national Jian Wen and Malaysian national Hok Seng Ling.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said after helping to launder Qian’s fraud proceeds, 43-year-old Wen was able to move from a humble abode above a restaurant to a multi-million pound rental in North London.
Wen was eventually jailed for her role in the criminal operation, receiving a sentence of six years and eight months imprisonment in May 2024.
It was alleged 46-year-old Ling replaced Wen as Qian’s ‘butler’ – a role which on its surface involved managing accommodations and organising helpers for Qian.
On Monday, however, Ling too pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property, namely cryptocurrency.
Sentencing for Qian and Ling is scheduled to take place at Southwark Crown Court in mid-November.
CPS deputy chief crown prosecutor, Robin Weyell, said the CPS will now “work to ensure, through criminal confiscation and civil proceedings, that the criminal assets remain beyond the fraudsters’ reach”, while UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis thanked the prosecutor and police.
"Money laundering erodes trust, undermines our economy, and fuels the rise of serious organised crime,” said Jarvis.
“This outcome sends a clear signal: the UK will never be a safe haven for criminals and their ill-gotten gains.”
