A takeaway worker was accused of money laundering after she was found in possession of a cryptocurrency wallet that contained 150 Bitcoins, which is worth nearly $15 million at today's prices.

Prosecutors told the court that there is no way she could possess so much Bitcoin, and the lack of legitimate evidence of how it was acquired all points to the fact that she had obtained all these Bitcoin through illegal means.

Wen's exceedingly lavish lifestyle as a blue collar worker

Another evidence that was used against her was the lavish lifestyle that she lived, despite earning a measly salary as a takeout driver.

It was reported that Wen was initially living in a flat above a Chinese restaurant in Leeds when she first moves to London. Amazingly, in just a matter of months, she managed to turn her life around and moved into a six-bedroom house in north London in 2017 that cost her a monthly rent of £17,000. It was also reported that she moved her son to the UK to attend a private school.

In 2017, Wen tried to buy numerous lavish properties in London but failed to pass money-laundering checks when she claimed that she had earned millions of dollars through mining Bitcoins.

A few years later, Wen took her acquisition abroad and started buying jewellery worth ten of thousands of pounds in Zurich and properties in Dubai.

The investigation later unveiled that another suspect, Zhang Yadi, was believed to be the mastermind behind the scheme. Prosecutors alleged that Wen assisted Chang in laundering stolen funds obtained through fraudulent wealth schemes that targeted thousands of Chinese investors.

Wen's attorneys later tried to beg for leniency from prosecutors by painting her as a victim misled by Zhang, emphasizing her desire to provide a better life for her son. But the prosecution contended that Wen should have been aware of the illicit source of the funds.

Ultimately, jurors found her guilty of one count of money laundering.

Investigation Led Police to other cases

While local police were investigating the source of the 150 Bitcoin that Wen possessed, it led them to her affiliation to a wider fraudulent operation involving more than 61,000 Bitcoin, which was worth around £2 billion at the time of the arrest but £3.4 billion today.

The local police has obtained a freezing order of the fraudulent Bitcoin while it carried out a civil recovery investigation that could lead to the forfeiture of the cryptocurrency.

This investigation follows after the UK government granted the National Crime Agency (NCA) and local police greater autonomy to "seize, freeze and destoy" crypto by criminal which was put into motion last year.

Wen is currently facing a six years and eight months in prison at Southwark Crown Court. The court also determined that Wen had profited more than £3,500,000 from the criminal conduct, with available assets valued at £3.126,572.

She is expected to return all this money within three months or face an additional 7 years of sentence on top of her current six-year and eight-month sentence.