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As soon as the Chinese police caught the master of a large-scale conspiracy ponzi scheme It cost thousands of people their life savings; a woman in her 40s, along with one of her companions, fled to the Myanmar border on a moped, and remained on the run for nearly seven years.
After zig-zagging across Southeast Asia, she landed LondonHeathrow Airport in September 2017 on a forged St Kitts and Nevis passport in the name of Zhang Yadi.
Until his arrest in April 2024, Zhang – whose real name was Qian Zhimin – Converted Bitcoin to cash to buy jewelery and luxury goods, traveled with an assistant across Europe while avoiding extradition countries China,
Before and during Qian’s sentencing this week, prosecutors and police cited documents collected during their investigation, as well as information from Chinese officials, that provide some insight into Qian’s life and criminality.
Qian was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison at Southwark Crown Court in London on Tuesday Using Bitcoin to Launder China Fraud Proceeds.
Shortly after arriving in Britain, he sent an accomplice to Thailand to collect a laptop containing 70,000 bitcoins, worth about £305 million ($410 million), which he had taken while fleeing China.
Prosecutors said Qian also tried to buy a villa in Tuscany and high-end London properties to launder his fraud proceeds, but it was a 2018 attempt to buy a house that put him on the radar of British police.
And although he appears to have spent most of his days on a laptop in bed in several rental properties in Britain, Kian had lofty ambitions to rule Liberland, the so-called “micronation” on the Croatia-Serbia border, according to a diary obtained by police.
Bitcoin came from China’s fraud
Qian had denied fraud allegations in China, where authorities say some 128,000 people fell victim to a 40 billion renminbi ($5.62 billion) investment scheme between 2014 and 2017.
But he changed his plea to guilty in September, on what was the first day of his trial, admitting that he had laundered the proceeds of a major fraud, sparking a fight over the billions of remaining bitcoins.
British police in 2018 seized the devices from a London property that Qian was renting and a nearby safety deposit box containing approximately 61,000 bitcoins, following a tip from lawyers who had been contacted by Qian’s assistant trying to buy a house.
By the time police actually got to Bitcoin in 2021, it was worth £1.5 billion. Due to Bitcoin’s continued increase in value, it is now worth approximately £5 billion ($6.7 billion).
Prosecutors said British authorities continued to recover more assets, including approximately £67 million worth of Bitcoin, which was found in a ledger in a specially created hidden pocket in the trousers Qian was wearing when he was arrested.
Prosecutors considering compensation plan
The seized assets are subject to civil proceedings brought by British prosecutors, who last month said they were considering a compensation scheme for victims of Chinese fraud, some of whom say they just want Bitcoin.
Qian was assisted in his efforts to launder Bitcoin smuggled from China by two facilitators who were convicted of money laundering offenses in the UK.
Before meeting Qian shortly after arriving in Britain, Wen Jian worked in a Chinese takeaway in London, traveling across Europe to convert bitcoins into cash.
Wayne denied money laundering but was convicted last year after a retrial and jailed for almost seven years.
Following Wen’s arrest in 2022, Kian got a new assistant, Malaysian citizen Ling Seng Hock, who converted Bitcoin into cash, rented out properties and hired staff whose contracts stipulated that their salaries would be doubled if they were detained or deported.
Prosecutors said Ling, 47, also tried to obtain fake Malaysian or Hong Kong passports for Qian by using a photograph of late Hong Kong actor Shen Dianxia.
Ling, who was sentenced to four years and 11 months on Wednesday, was sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday after police say he unknowingly led them to Kyan, in northern England, in 2024 when some bitcoins were transferred to an account opened by Ling.