Inside World's Biggest Bitcoin Bust: How A Chinese Woman Laundered $6.7 Billion

A Chinese national, Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, has been convicted in London for her role in one of the biggest cryptocurrency-related crimes in history, according to BBC. The 47-year-old pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to illegally acquiring and holding over 61,000 bitcoins, worth more than $6.7 billion.

Between 2014 and 2017, Qian defrauded over 128,000 people in China through a large-scale investment scam. The Metropolitan Police revealed that she then transferred the stolen money into bitcoin to hide its origins, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The investors reportedly knew little about Qian, who was described as "the goddess of wealth".

The investigation into Qian's criminal activities began in 2018 after UK authorities received a tip about suspicious transfers of crypto assets. Qian had fled China using fake documents and entered the UK, where she attempted to launder the funds by purchasing luxury properties, according to BBC.

The police described the case as a highly complex, multi-jurisdictional investigation that lasted seven years. Qian was finally arrested after years of evading justice.

Her accomplice, Jian Wen, a former takeaway worker, was previously sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for helping launder the stolen crypto. Wen had moved from modest living conditions to a luxurious lifestyle, including renting a multimillion-pound house in North London and buying two properties in Dubai.

"Today marks 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 Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, who led the Met's investigation."I am immensely proud of the investigation team and our partners who have worked tirelessly on this case."

The Crown Prosecution Service said Wen claimed she bought the properties on behalf of a Chinese employer, but failed to provide any credible proof of the bitcoin's origin. Authorities eventually seized more than 300 million pounds worth of cryptocurrency from her.