61,000 Bitcoins seized in UK's largest Bitcoin money laundering case

According to Metropolis Express, on September 29th, Qian Zhimin, the main suspect in the UK's largest Bitcoin money laundering case and a major illegal fundraising operation at Tianjin Lantian Gree in China, appeared in court in London and pleaded guilty to charges of Bitcoin money laundering. The case defrauded over 128,000 people of 61,000 Bitcoins (approximately 49.35 billion yuan). She admitted to obtaining and possessing these illegal proceeds. The defendant’s name is Qian Zhimin Qian (transliteration), alias Zhang Yadi (transliteration), 47 years old. The London Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying: "Between 2014 and 2017, Zhang Yadi orchestrated a massive fraud scheme in China, defrauding more than 128,000 victims, with her illegal proceeds subsequently converted into Bitcoin assets." The police added that the woman then used forged documents to escape from China and enter the UK, where she attempted to launder the money by purchasing real estate in September 2018. Will Lane, head of the UK Metropolitan Police's Economic and Cyber ​​Crime Unit, said the case was "not only one of the largest in UK history, but also one of the largest cryptocurrency cases in the world in terms of the amount of money involved."

The case lasted seven years of investigation, and last year her accomplice, a 42-year-old British Chinese woman named Jian Wen, was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.

Jian Wen

Qian Zhimin is currently in custody awaiting sentencing, a date for which has yet to be determined. Grotto, head of the London Metropolitan Police's investigation team, stated that the defendant had been "evading justice" for five years before his arrest. The investigation involved multiple jurisdictions and was complex. Weyer, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), stated: "Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used by organized criminals to conceal and transfer assets, allowing fraudsters to profit from their crimes. This case, the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the UK, fully demonstrates the scale of criminal profits these fraudsters can reap." Last year, the CPS stated that many victims had received partial compensation under a compensation scheme established in China. According to Jiemian News, a Blue Sky Green victim confirmed this development. However, they are uncertain about the extent to which they will be able to recover their losses. Given Qian Zhimin's guilty plea, the UK will initiate asset confiscation proceedings. The trial is expected to last 12 weeks. Several Chinese victims will testify remotely via video link from a Tianjin court. The Tianjin Lantian Gree illegal fundraising case, a major case in China that occurred in 2017, involved over 43 billion yuan and nearly 130,000 victims across 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Qian Zhimin was the company's actual controller. After the product's collapse in 2017, Qian Zhimin converted his illegal proceeds into Bitcoin and transferred them overseas, then fled to the UK using a fake passport. In May 2021, police seized and froze 61,000 bitcoins from Qian Zhimin's devices. In April 2024, Qian Zhimin was arrested in the UK. Qian Zhimin had previously denied all money laundering charges. According to Jiemian News, Qian Zhimin pleaded not guilty to all money laundering charges at her trial on October 21, 2024. Her lawyer stated, "Qian Zhimin denies all allegations of criminal conduct and intends to vigorously defend herself against the case." Appearing in court with her was a co-defendant, Senghok Ling, who also pleaded not guilty to one charge of knowingly laundering criminal property.

The entrusted lawyers have filed a civil recovery application on behalf of the creditors with the UK High Court.

In this regard, the UK Public Prosecution Service specifically informed the Chinese victims that it has initiated civil recovery procedures for the assets frozen by the UK from Qian Zhimin, and that inter-state contact will only be made after the procedures have reached the progress required by Section 281 of the Recovery of Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

If no other individuals or entities claim rights to the criminal assets, half will belong to the UK police and the other half will be transferred to the UK Home Office to facilitate the handling of the proceeds of crime and to prevent further crimes.

After the Blue Sky Green incident, Qian Zhimin fled to the UK with his encrypted wallet. Publicly available verdicts reveal that on March 31, 2014, Qian Zhimin registered and established Blue Sky Green in Tianjin. Blue Sky Green managed the sales of wealth management products nationwide across seven regions: the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Northeast China, East China, South China, Central China, Northwest China, and Southwest China. From April 2014 to August 2017, Blue Sky Green launched ten wealth management products, using the promise of a 1-3x return on investment as bait to illegally absorb public deposits. According to China Newsweek, almost no "investors" know much about Qian Zhimin's background. All that's passed down by word of mouth are Blue Sky Green's public promotional information and unconfirmed rumors. The person on the right wearing a mask is Qian Zhimin. Provided by the interviewee. Image source: China Newsweek. Blue Sky Green claims that "Huahua" (Qian Zhimin's nickname at Blue Sky Green) graduated from Tsinghua University with two doctorates, studied in the United States, and is knowledgeable in finance. Han Xinghai (a pseudonym), an "investor" from Shenyang, heard that Huahua had brought back a lot of technology from the United States. He once asked Huahua at a promotional event why she wouldn't allow photos. "She said it was because she brought back American technology, and if it got out, the US would sanction her." Zhang Li (a pseudonym), from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, met Qian Zhimin in 2016 at a promotional event organized by BlueSky Green in Beijing that attracted over a thousand people. "Give Green three years, and Gree will give you three generations of wealth." This was the slogan at the Blue Sky Gree product launch. Image source: Provided by the interviewee. In late April 2024, British media reported that after Qian Zhimin was arrested in the UK, she provided the court with the identity of Yadi Zhang, stating that her date of birth was November 10, 1990. However, China Newsweek learned from an unnamed source that this date may be inaccurate. The source stated that Qian Zhimin was born in Rugao, Jiangsu Province in September 1978, had a college degree, and was married but later divorced. On April 21, 2017, public security authorities opened an investigation into Lantian Green, suspecting the company of illegally absorbing public deposits. In June 2019, the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a notice announcing the arrest of 50 suspects, including Ren Jiangtao, the legal representative of Lantian Green. 28 of these suspects have been transferred for investigation and prosecution. Ren Jiangtao confessed that he met Qian Zhimin through playing online games. Because he completely obeyed Qian Zhimin's instructions in the game, Qian Zhimin appointed him as the legal representative of Lantian Green. However, this position was merely a figurehead, and his specific duties were still handled by Qian Zhimin. According to a special audit, from August 2014 to July 2017, Blue Sky Green absorbed over 40.2 billion yuan, all of which was controlled and managed by Qian Zhimin. From April 2014 to August 2017, Blue Sky Green returned over 34.1 billion yuan to 128,409 individuals. The funds were used to purchase over 95.68 million yuan in jewelry, over 91.89 million yuan in real estate, over 210 million yuan in daily operating expenses, and over 120 million yuan for the Life Ring Customer Service Center project. Notably, over 1.14 billion yuan of this money was used to purchase Bitcoin. According to Jiemian News, in December 2022, the Blue Sky Green case initiated restitution procedures, and public security organs in multiple locations across China issued online registration notices for participants in the fundraising. After the Blue Sky Green case broke, Qian Zhimin fled the country using a forged passport from a Commonwealth country, carrying with him a laptop equipped with a crypto wallet containing Bitcoin that had been transferred from a subordinate's Huobi account. In 2018, Qian Zhimin and his assistant attempted to purchase a £23.5 million Hampstead mansion directly with Bitcoin because they were unable to convert the Bitcoin into pounds in a timely manner. Ultimately, due to the unidentified source of the funds, the purchase failed and instead attracted the attention of the police.

The luxury house that Qian Zhimin tried to buy with Bitcoin

During the investigation of the two, British police seized more than 61,000 bitcoins, the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized in the UK. Based on the latest price of $113,631 per bitcoin on September 30, the total value of the aforementioned bitcoins is currently $6.932 billion (approximately RMB 49.35 billion).