Tue, 30 Sep 2025

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 Chinese scammer convicted after 'world's biggest' bitcoin seizure

UK police seized cryptocurrency worth more than £5bn after a seven-year probe into a global money laundering web.

* Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, a Chinese national, has pleaded guilty to illegally acquiring and possessing cryptocurrency worth over £5bn ($6.7bn).
* Between 2014-2017, she led a large-scale scam in China, cheating over 128,000 victims and storing the stolen funds in bitcoin assets.
* The Metropolitan Police said Qian had been evading justice for five years before her arrest and had used false documents to enter the UK.
* She attempted to launder the stolen money by buying property in London and Dubai.
* A Chinese takeaway worker, Jian Wen, helped Qian and was jailed for six years and eight months last year for her part in the scam.
* The Met seized 61,000 bitcoins from Qian and over £300m worth of bitcoin from Wen.
* Many of the victims had some of their money returned to them by a compensation scheme established in China.
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