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The world's largest money laundering case: more than 61,000 bitcoins were seized, and the mastermind behind the scenes is still on the run with $6.3 billion

2024-04-02 13:22

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Original title: "The world's largest money laundering case exposed: the boss behind the scenes fled to the UK with $6.3 billion from China, and the assistant "reversed" to become a rich man"

Original source: Phoenix.com "Eye of the Storm" Comprehensive

When Jian Wen (transliteration) wrote on the letter paper, "The one who said "You are poor": Look how I grew up to be a millionaire!!!", she may not have expected that her story would set off an uproar.

On March 18, the British court found Jian Wen, a 42-year-old British Chinese woman, guilty of participating in money laundering and will be sentenced on May 10. Police said that during the investigation, more than 61,000 bitcoins worth about 3.4 billion pounds were seized, the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized. These funds are said to be from the fraud group that deceived nearly 130,000 Chinese investors between 2014 and 2017.

For the 61,000 bitcoins seized, the Financial Times revealed that the British Crown Prosecution Service has initiated civil recovery procedures in the High Court. If no one else is entitled to these assets, half of the confiscated funds will go to the British police and the other half to the British Home Office.

"This is a long-planned fraud case. The fraud method is to illegally absorb public deposits. The criminals also use virtual currency to launder money. The front and back echo each other and are linked together." Yan Lixin, professor at the School of International Finance of Fudan University and executive director of the China Anti-Money Laundering Research Center, commented to Phoenix.com's "Eye of the Storm" that "the actual execution difficulty of this case, especially the ownership and disposal of bitcoins, lies in international coordination and cooperation in anti-money laundering."

Chinese takeaway drivers "get rich overnight"?

It is reported that Jane Wen was an ordinary employee working in a British restaurant and lived a simple life. However, it is shocking that she suddenly had a huge fortune of hundreds of millions of Bitcoins. People can't help but wonder how Jane Wen achieved this amazing transformation?

(Photo source: news.sky)

According to reports, Jane Wen admitted that she grew up in an ordinary working-class family in China, where she met her ex-husband Marcus Barraclough. In 2007, she came to the UK with her husband while pregnant.

Unfortunately, their marriage came to an end after the birth of their son. After the divorce, Jane lived a frugal life in Leeds, during which she studied and obtained a law diploma and a bachelor's degree in economics. In the summer of 2017, she moved to London. In order to make a living and raise her son, Jane worked hard in a Chinese takeaway shop in Abbey Wood, southeast London, and even lived in a small room downstairs from the restaurant. In order to increase her income, she also took on several jobs, including handling cryptocurrencies.

Jian Wen recalled that one day she saw an advertisement for recruiting a "housekeeper" on WeChat. Out of curiosity and need, she decided to contact the employer to try. Later, at the five-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, she met her future employer Qian Zhimin (using the pseudonym zhangyadi at the time) for the first time. This meeting became a major turning point in Jane Wen's fate.

The sponsor fled to the UK with $6.3 billion

The sponsor Qian Zhimin who met with Jane Wen had a complicated background.

In 2014, Qian Zhimin orchestrated a "wealth management plan" in China that successfully defrauded 130,000 unsuspecting investors of huge sums of money. In just three years, she sucked in nearly $6.3 billion in funds and then quickly absconded with the money.

Police data shows that Qian Zhimin was born in 1978 and ran a business called Tianjin Blue Sky Grey Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (which was established in March 2014). Before that, little is known about her life experience.

According to British court documents, Blue Sky Grey once sold investment products and promised investors a return rate of up to 300%. The company also claimed to have a side business in bitcoin mining.

However, British court documents revealed that the company "used almost scrapped (mining) equipment as a cover to deceive potential investors."

Ultimately, Qian Zhimin allegedly transferred investors’ funds into an account at a cryptocurrency exchange and absconded with the funds after converting them into Bitcoin.

This absconding was not without warning. Shortly after the establishment of Blue Sky Grey, Qian Zhimin successfully persuaded employee Ren Jiangtao to become the company’s sole shareholder and legal representative by offering him high salaries and generous bonuses.

It is reported that in addition to giving Ren Jiangtao a monthly salary of up to RMB 26,948, Qian Zhimin also paid him an additional one-time bonus of RMB 997,000. At the same time, she also opened a Bitcoin account in Ren Jiangtao’s name, but according to Ren Jiangtao, all funds in the account were controlled by Qian Zhimin.

Ren Jiangtao said that Qian Zhimin had promised him that if the company got into trouble, she would help him out of any legal difficulties.

However, after the relevant Chinese authorities launched an investigation in July 2017, Qian Zhimin quickly fled the country.

At that time, Qian Zhimin carried a black Lenovo laptop with an encrypted wallet containing billions of pounds worth of Bitcoin, which was transferred from Ren Jiangtao's account.

After that, she sneaked into the UK with a fake passport and the alias Zhang Yadi.

According to prosecutor Gillian Jones KC, after arriving in London, Qian Zhimin needed to exchange her Bitcoin for cash or other valuables such as jewelry.

In addition, she had been in a car accident, so she was breathing heavily and had difficulty walking. What's worse, she barely understood English. Therefore, she urgently needed someone who could take care of and assist her, preferably a Chinese.

It was out of this need that she began to look for a reliable middleman. In this way, her fate intersected with Jian Wen's.

Crazy consumption triggered an investigation

After becoming Qian Zhimin's assistant, Jian Wen's life changed dramatically. She moved from a dark basement into a large mansion in North London worth up to 5 million pounds.

The British Crown Prosecution Service disclosed in detail Jian Wen's luxury consumption list. In 2017, Jian Wen rented a spacious six-bedroom property in London for a monthly rent of up to 17,000 pounds, and paid the rent for six months in one lump sum. In addition, she also arranged for her children to go to an aristocratic school near the mansion, with tuition fees of 6,000 pounds per semester.

(Photo source: cps)

Not only that, Jane also bought herself a Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan and became a distinguished customer of the top luxury department store Harrods. Court documents show that her average monthly consumption at Harrods is as high as 30,000 pounds.

With the improvement of her social status in the UK, Jane transformed from a restaurant employee to a jewelry dealer and began her global luxury journey. In Dubai, she spent 500,000 pounds to buy an apartment; in Italy, she bid for a 10 million pound Venice sea view antique villa; in Switzerland, she spent 70,000 pounds on Van Cleef & Arpels and spent 75,000 pounds on diamonds at a private jeweler. From the fall of 2017 to the end of 2018, Jane Wen bought three more properties in London, worth 4.5 million pounds, 23.5 million pounds, and 12.5 million pounds respectively. However, due to the UK's strict anti-money laundering regulations, she had to provide proof of the legal source of the funds.

It was precisely because Jane Wen failed to exchange enough Bitcoins into pounds in time that she attracted the attention of regulators.

So far, the police have targeted Jane Wen and officially launched an investigation into her.

Sudden Arrest

In the early hours of October 31, 2018, the police raided a red brick manor in Hampstead, north London, and conducted a thorough search of Jane Wen's residence.

In the following hours, the police seized laptops, tablets and a pink USB flash drive stored in metal cans. In addition, in Jane Wen's bedroom, the police found up to 69,000 pounds in cash. A large amount of cash was found in Wen's home during the raid

(Image source: news.sky)

When the police noticed that Jian Wen tried to delete the apps on her iPhone, they asked her to hand over the phone immediately. In the phone case of another iPhone, the police also found two 500 euro notes and a handwritten note with a list of passwords.

The next day, the police searched the residence again, this time they found a safe. More than 61,000 bitcoins were hidden in the box - this amount is one of the largest bitcoin seizures ever by British law enforcement agencies.

By the time the safe was fully unlocked in 2021, the value of the seized virtual currency had reached 1.4 billion pounds. At the current price of $71,000 per coin, the total value of these bitcoins has soared to $4.331 billion.

After a long period of investigation and tracking, Jane Wen was finally arrested in May 2021, and the trial process lasted for more than a year.

In 2023, Jane Wen was tried for the first time and faced 12 charges. In the end, 2 charges could not be determined and 10 charges were acquitted.

Last week, Jane Wen stood in court again for a second trial. In addition to the two charges that had not been determined before, an additional charge was added due to newly discovered wallet evidence. In this trial, the jury found her guilty of one of the three money laundering charges (involved in the case) by a majority vote. For the other two issues, the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

At this point, Jian Wen's criminal behavior finally came to an end: due to the huge scale of the case, Jian Wen was classified as a Class A criminal, that is, the most dangerous criminal who would pose the greatest threat to society, the police or national security if he escaped. What awaits her will be a long life behind bars.

Where is the mastermind hiding?

Qian Zhimin, the mastermind behind the case, disappeared and absconded as soon as he learned that his house was searched, and his whereabouts are still unknown.

During the trial by the British prosecutor, Jian Wen admitted that she was indeed involved in the processing of cryptocurrencies, but she firmly denied that she knew that the funds were proceeds of crime and insisted that she was deceived by "that woman".

In Jian Wen's description, Qian Zhimin's life seemed extremely bleak. Due to a car accident, Qian Zhimin's movements became extremely inconvenient. She could only stay in bed most of the time and rely on a laptop to play games, shop and trade Bitcoin to pass the time.

"She often had nightmares, woke up screaming at night, and had to stay in bed all day. Who would have thought that she had been using a fake identity all the time?" Jian Wen said with emotion.

Looking back on this experience, Jian Wen felt that she had been seriously exploited. "Until now, I don't know where Qian Zhimin is." She said helplessly.

The police said they are still trying their best to track Qian Zhimin's whereabouts. And Jian Wen will face the final judgment of the court in May.

According to the Financial Times, regarding the handling of the 61,000 bitcoins, the British Crown Prosecution Service has filed a civil recovery procedure with the High Court to determine whether there are other legal rights holders. Once these assets are formally confiscated, half will belong to the British police and the other half to the British Home Office in accordance with regulations.

"If, yes, if no one or other entitled entity claims and pursues this right, the British Home Office and the police will naturally "divide the spoils" after the necessary legal procedures. I think they have enough motivation to do so." Yan Lixin, professor of finance at the School of International Finance of Fudan University and executive director of the China Anti-Money Laundering Research Center, said.

So can the 130,000 Chinese victims get compensation? Yan Lixin told Phoenix.com's "Eye of the Storm" that the Chinese government, judicial organs and police will not sit idly by and have the right to pursue the case. The British side should cooperate and support it because both sides are members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and must abide by common rules.

Yan Lixin pointed out that the division of stolen money is an internationally accepted practice. In this case, the British side invested corresponding judicial and law enforcement resources to solve the case, and obtaining necessary compensation is understandable and acceptable, but it also needs to be controlled within a reasonable range. Therefore, this case needs to achieve a win-win situation under the framework of international law through diplomatic coordination, judicial and police cooperation between China and the UK, so as to minimize the losses of the 130,000 victims in China.

Speaking of the difficulties of the case, Yan Lixin said that the seizure, freezing, detention and disposal of virtual currencies face many difficulties that are "difficult to start or even impossible to start", which is also a global problem. Why is it so difficult? First, it is difficult to identify ownership. Virtual asset accounts are not real-name systems, and are anonymous, decentralized and intangible. It is difficult to clarify ownership, which brings obstacles to law enforcement actions such as seizure and freezing; second, there is a lack of value assessment standards. Virtual assets do not have a unified pricing mechanism, prices fluctuate greatly, and it is difficult to assess and dispose of them; third, technical means lag behind. Law enforcement agencies do not have enough understanding of the operating mechanism of virtual assets, and lack effective technical means to collect evidence, track and control; fourth, international coordination is difficult. The cross-border flow of virtual currencies requires close cooperation among regulatory authorities in various countries, but international coordination is extremely difficult due to inconsistent interests, regulatory standards and even relevant laws and regulations.

“The case involves many victims, the harm is great, and the impact is bad. Therefore, it is necessary and urgent for all parties to improve the relevant laws and regulations involving virtual currency as soon as possible, form a consensus on supervision and law enforcement, strengthen international cooperation, and take convergent measures to combat crimes such as money laundering using virtual assets.” Yan Lixin said.