A Chinese woman accused of laundering billions of pounds in stolen funds through cryptocurrency is expected to be sentenced this week in the United Kingdom.
Forty-seven (47) years old Qian Zhimin allegedly embezzled money from more than 100,000 Chinese investors, mostly pensioners, who were persuaded to put their savings into her company, Lantian Gerui, which claimed to develop health technologies and mine cryptocurrency.
According to the Metropolitan Police, Qian fled China in 2017 using a fake passport after authorities began investigating her company.
She then moved into a luxury mansion in Hampstead, north London, renting it for over £17,000 a month.
A year later, police raided the property, seizing hard drives containing tens of thousands of Bitcoin, believed to be one of the largest crypto seizures in UK history.
Investigators say Qian posed as a wealthy heiress, hiring a personal assistant to convert her cryptocurrency into cash and property. Her assistant, Wen Jian, was later sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering.
Police evidence and Qian’s own diaries revealed that she had drawn up an ambitious six-year plan to found a bank, buy a Swedish castle, and even become “Queen of Liberland,” an unrecognised microstate on the Croatian-Serbian border.
Back in China, Qian’s company had run a massive pyramid-style operation that promised investors double their money in two and a half years.
Early participants received small daily payouts to maintain trust, but those returns were allegedly funded by new investors’ deposits.
Many victims were elderly citizens drawn in by the company’s patriotic messaging and endorsements from high-profile figures, including a relative of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. Investors were told they were helping make China “number one in the world.”
When Chinese authorities began investigating in 2017, payouts stopped. Qian allegedly bribed senior managers to calm investors’ fears before fleeing with the funds.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) estimated total deposits into Qian’s company exceeded £4.2 billion.
Prosecutors disclosed that the Bitcoin she brought to the UK has since increased twentyfold in value.
Victims like Mr. Yu, a retired investor who lost his life savings and marriage to the fraud, hope that UK courts will return part of her recovered assets.
“If the UK government and the courts can show compassion, that haul of Bitcoin might return us a little of what we lost,” he told the BBC.
The fate of the cryptocurrency will be decided in a proceeds of crime case next year. Thousands of victims plan to make claims, though proving ownership may be difficult, as many invested through intermediaries rather than directly with Qian’s firm.
Any unclaimed funds could legally revert to the UK government, sparking speculation that the Treasury might benefit from the crypto haul.
Qian, who initially denied wrongdoing, pleaded guilty in September to illegally acquiring and possessing the cryptocurrency.
Her sentencing at Southwark Crown Court will determine the next steps in what authorities described as one of the most complex and far-reaching financial crime cases involving cryptocurrency.
