London, Wednesday, February 14, 2024 – The British police announced on January 30 that they seized over £1.4 billion worth of Bitcoin in 2018, marking one of the largest cryptocurrency forfeitures globally. 1
The announcement comes during the trial of a woman accused of laundering funds for her former employer, an alleged fugitive from Chinese authorities involved in a massive investment fraud.
Prosecutors alleged that Zhimin Qian, operating under the alias Yadi Zhang, perpetrated a vast investment fraud in China between 2014 and 2017, misappropriating over £5 billion from more than 128,000 investors. She then allegedly converted the stolen funds into Bitcoin and fled to the UK using a false passport.
British authorities arrested Jian Wen, a former employee of Qian, in 2018 and accused her of aiding in laundering the stolen Bitcoin.
The seized Bitcoin, valued at approximately £1.4 billion at the time, remains one of the largest cryptocurrency forfeitures ever recorded.
Wen denies any involvement in the underlying fraud and claims she was unaware of the illegal origins of the funds.
The trial is ongoing.
- Chinese Bitcoin Fraud: https://news.sky.com/story/bitcoin-worth-1-4bn-seized-after-ex-takeaway-worker-tried-to-buy-23m-mansion-court-hears-13059926[↩]
