The £5.5 billion scam is the largest cryptocurrency money laundering case in UK history.

By Henry Vaughan Compiled by Sleepy.txt, BlockBeats Editor's Note: With the recent guilty plea by Zhimin Qian (aka Yadi Zhang) in a London court, the case involving over 61,000 Bitcoins and a combined value of £5.5 billion has finally reached a critical juncture. This is the largest cryptocurrency case in the UK to date, implicating an ordinary Chinese delivery worker in London in a vast money laundering network spanning China and the UK. The story begins with a dramatic twist. Jian Wen, a single mother living in poverty in London, met the mysterious wealthy woman Zhimin Qian through a WeChat ad for a housekeeper. Soon, her life was completely transformed. She moved from a dormitory above her delivery shop to a £17,000-a-month Hampstead mansion, where she drove a Mercedes, purchased luxury goods, and traveled the world. On the surface, it's a story of "a sparrow rising from humble origins," but behind it lies a vast criminal abyss. The source of this enormous sum can be traced back to 2014-2017. During those years, Zhimin Qian orchestrated a massive investment scam in China, siphoning funds from over 128,000 investors, most of whom were elderly. She then converted the funds into Bitcoin and fled to the UK with the digital assets. Jian Wen served as her agent in London, laundering the illicit funds. Their money-laundering methods were crude and crude: they bought jewelry, watches, luxury cars, and even targeted prime London real estate, including a seven-bedroom mansion priced at £23.5 million. This level of spending was in stark contrast to Jian Wen's declared annual income of less than £6,000, triggering a UK anti-money laundering alert and exposing the entire criminal network. Will Lyne, Head of the Metropolitan Police's Economic and Cybercrime Command, stated that this was one of the largest money laundering cases in UK history and one of the highest-value cryptocurrency cases globally. He explained that through a meticulous investigation and unprecedented collaboration with Chinese law enforcement, the police ultimately secured sufficient evidence to confirm that the cryptocurrency assets Qian attempted to launder in the UK were criminally derived. The case, which unfolded over seven years and culminated in a transnational manhunt, revealed how cryptocurrency is used to transfer and conceal illicit proceeds and highlighted the complexity of modern financial crime. The Metropolitan Police collaborated closely with law enforcement teams in Tianjin and Beijing, China, to bring the principal offender to justice. Jian Wen, who was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for money laundering in May 2024, has consistently argued that she was deceived and exploited. Now, with the guilty plea of ​​the principal offender, Zhimin Qian, the final link in this criminal chain has been resolved, and she now awaits the full legal judgment. The following is an in-depth investigative report, written in 2024, chronicling the events of the largest cryptocurrency money laundering case in British history. In September 2017, a few weeks after Yadi Zhang arrived in London, Jian Wen quit her job at a Chinese takeaway, moved out of staff housing, and settled into a six-bedroom mansion worth £5 million near Hampstead Heath. The couple touted an international jewelry business, trading diamonds and antiques in Japan, Thailand, and China. They traveled the world, spending tens of thousands of pounds on designer clothes and shoes at Harrods. In this new life, Wen bought a £25,000 Mercedes-Benz E-Class and enrolled her son at Heathside Preparatory School, where fees cost £6,000 per term. But alarm bells rang when she attempted to buy some of London's most expensive properties, including a £23.5 million seven-bedroom mansion with a swimming pool and a £12.5 million villa with a cinema and gym. However, Wen declared an income of just £5,979 in the 2016/17 financial year and was unable to explain the source of the Bitcoin used to pay for the properties. On October 31, 2018, police raided their homes for the first time. Jian Wen on trial at Southwark Crown Court. Image: CPS It wasn’t until two and a half years later that investigators realised they had actually completed the largest cryptocurrency seizure in UK history, finding over 61,000 Bitcoins held in a single digital wallet. These Bitcoins were worth around £1.4 billion at the time, and by March 2024, their market value had surpassed £3 billion. The 23,308 Bitcoins linked to the case are still in circulation and are now worth over £1 billion. £5 Billion Investment Scam Court testimony revealed that the Bitcoins originated from a £5 billion investment scam orchestrated in China by 45-year-old Zhang. Between 2014 and 2017, she defrauded nearly 130,000 investors through a fraudulent wealth scheme, then entered the UK using a counterfeit St. Kitts and Nevis passport. Wen was not charged with involvement in the scam. Zhang, whose real name is Zhimin Qian, has fled the UK and her whereabouts are unknown. Wen, 42, was convicted of one count of money laundering between October 2017 and January 2022. The jury at Southwark Crown Court was unable to reach a consensus on two other similar charges. Prosecutors have said they will not seek a retrial, and Wen will be sentenced on May 10. They rent a house in Hampstead for £17,000 a month. Image: CPS The 10 other money laundering charges for which Wen was acquitted at last year's trial were not publicly reported due to concerns that disclosing the figures could attract hackers to companies holding seized cryptocurrency. A Category A prisoner, Wen, petite and wearing large round glasses, was led to the witness stand in handcuffs. Two court officers stood at the door as she gave her evidence.

She told jurors about her background: she came from a working-class family in China, met her husband, Marcus Barraclough, and came to the UK on a spousal visa in 2007 when she became pregnant.

Wen visits a Lindt chocolate shop in Switzerland. Image: London Metropolitan Police

Wen's Lifestyle Change

After the birth of her son, her marriage broke down, and Wen lived a modest life in Leeds, where she earned a law diploma and then a bachelor's degree in economics. She moved to London in the summer of 2017. By then, she had already opened a cryptocurrency account and meticulously kept records in a notebook featuring anime characters. But she claims she had "no idea" she would soon be involved in such large-scale Bitcoin transactions. While working at a Chinese takeaway in Abbey Wood, southeast London, she applied for dozens of jobs and lived in a room below the restaurant. It wasn't until she saw an ad for a housekeeper on WeChat that she first met Zhang at the five-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington. She listed the position on her resume as a "live-in personal assistant for high-net-worth individuals." Soon after, the couple paid a £40,000 deposit and six months' rent upfront and moved into a £17,000-a-month house in Hampstead. Wen subsequently traveled to Thailand and Dubai, and the couple also frequently visited various European countries. Zhang used aliases such as "Rose," "Emma," and "Hua Hua" to avoid countries with which China has extradition agreements. Wen attempted to buy property in Hampstead. Image source: London Metropolitan Police. They exchanged Bitcoin for cash and used it to buy expensive jewelry. Receipts show purchases of £25,600 and £18,750 at Christopher Walser Vintage Diamonds in Zurich, and two watches at Van Cleef & Arpels in Switzerland, costing approximately £49,300 and £69,900 respectively. In a three-month period at the end of 2017, Wen's membership card accounted for over £90,000 in purchases at Harrods, including women's clothing, jewelry, and shoes. She argued in court, "I was just carrying the bags." Wen also purchased two apartments in Dubai for a total of over £500,000 and briefly considered buying an 18th-century villa with sea views in Tuscany for £10 million. Their attempts to buy a house in London triggered an anti-money laundering review. Unable to explain the source of the bitcoins, the multi-million pound transactions fell through. Wen initially claimed the cryptocurrency came from mining, but later changed her story to a "love gift." She even drafted a gift deed stating that Zhang had given her 3,000 Bitcoins, then worth approximately £15 million. Prosecutors argued that Wen effectively acted as an agent, helping to conceal the origin of the stolen funds, which were converted into cryptocurrency for transfer out of China. Barrister Gillian Jones argued at the trial that when Zhang arrived in London, she needed to liquidate the Bitcoins, either into real estate, jewelry, or other items of high value. Wen admitted to participating in some of the Bitcoin handling arrangements but maintained she had no knowledge of the assets' criminal origin. She stressed that she was deceived by her "boss": "We were close... but now looking back, I feel I was badly taken advantage of. I don't know where she is."

Police said they are still actively searching for Zhang.