Chinese fraud mastermind jailed in UK for laundering Bitcoin
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Prosecutors say Qian Zhimin ran an investment fraud between 2014 and 2017.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON - The mastermind of a vast Ponzi scheme in China was on Nov 11 jailed in Britain for over 11 years for laundering the proceeds of the fraud into cryptocurrency now worth billions of dollars.
Qian Zhimin pleaded guilty to two money laundering charges in September, after an investigation during which British police seized more than 61,000 bitcoin
Qian, 47, wept in the dock at London's Southwark Crown Court as Judge Sally-Ann Hales said: "You were the architect of this offending from its inception to its conclusion... your motive was one of pure greed."
She changed her pleas on what was due to be the first day of her trial, admitting possessing and transferring criminal property. She previously claimed she was the target of a Chinese government “crackdown on successful crypto entrepreneurs”.
Prosecutors say Qian ran an investment fraud between 2014 and 2017, into which around 128,000 people invested roughly 40 billion yuan (S$7.3 billion), about 6 billion of which was siphoned off. Over 80 people were convicted in China.
Qian fled China via Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Malaysia, before she flew to London on a St Kitts and Nevis passport and began trying to convert Bitcoin bought with the proceeds of the fraud into cash, prosecutors said. REUTERS
