Chinese fraudster sentenced to 11 years in UK, involved 61,000 Bitcoins

47-year-old Chinese woman Qian Zhimin was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in a UK court for money laundering using Bitcoin. This case is the largest money laundering case in UK history, involving as many as 61,000 Bitcoins, with a market value of about 5 billion pounds (approximately 43 billion yuan), shocking the global financial sector.

Qian Zhimin used the alias "Zhang Yadi." She founded "Tianjin Blue Sky Greco Electronic Technology Co., Ltd." in Tianjin, China, from 2014 to 2017. She claimed to be a tech entrepreneur, promising investors that they could "make money while lying down," stating that funds would be used to develop high-tech health products and Bitcoin mining plans, but in reality, she operated a Ponzi scheme. There were as many as 128,000 victims, with an amount involved of up to 40 billion yuan, mainly middle-aged and elderly people, many of whom fell into hardship after losing their life savings.

In 2017, after Chinese police investigated the company, Qian Zhimin fled in a panic. She was first taken by her accomplices on a motorcycle to the Myanmar border, then entered the UK with a fake passport. She rented a mansion in the hills of Hampstead in northern London, with a monthly rent of over 17,000 pounds. She converted the ill-gotten gains into Bitcoin and laundered them through property purchases and other means, including purchasing a London mansion worth 23 million pounds. She also posed as a wealthy antique and diamond merchant, hiring assistants to exchange Bitcoin and purchase real estate.

According to information from the UK Crown Prosecution Service, Qian Zhimin initially denied the charges in court, claiming to be a "victim of China's crackdown on cryptocurrencies." It wasn't until September 2025 that she admitted to money laundering and other charges. The judge emphasized that the scale of money laundering in this case was astonishing, exploiting human weaknesses to defraud large sums of money, seriously harming the rights of the victims.

Analysts point out that according to the UK's Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, typically, half of the confiscated assets may go to the UK police (used for law enforcement costs), and the other half to the Home Office. However, since almost all the victims are Chinese citizens, and there is an asset sharing mechanism between China and the UK, China can claim 70-80% of the share to be used for a special fund to compensate the victims.

However, due to the lack of a formal extradition treaty between China and the UK, it is very difficult to extradite her back to China for trial. The current focus has shifted to cross-border recovery of assets and returning them, rather than personal extradition. This is a "red line" that Qian Zhimin deliberately avoided when she fled. After fleeing China in 2017, she intentionally chose countries without extradition risks (such as the UK, Thailand, and parts of Europe) as her hideouts, avoiding countries with treaties (such as Spain and France). (Cat Uncle in Silicon Valley)

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1848907859284167/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.