LONDON (Reuters) -As Chinese police closed in on the architect of a massive Ponzi scheme that cost thousands their life savings, a woman in her mid-40s was taken by an accomplice to the Myanmar border on a moped to begin nearly seven years on the run.
After zig-zagging across Southeast Asia, she landed at London’s Heathrow airport in September 2017 on a forged St Kitts and Nevis passport in the name of Zhang Yadi.
Until her arrest in April 2024, Zhang – whose real name was Qian Zhimin – converted bitcoin into cash to buy jewellery and luxury goods, travelling with an assistant across Europe while avoiding countries that extradite to China.
Before and during Qian’s sentencing this week, prosecutors and police cited documents collected during their investigation, plus information from Chinese authorities, that provide some insight into Qian’s life and criminality.
Qian was sentenced at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday to 11 years and eight months in jail for laundering proceeds of the China fraud using bitcoin.
Shortly after her arrival in Britain, she sent an accomplice to Thailand to collect a laptop which contained part of the 70,000 bitcoin, then worth roughly 305 million pounds ($410 million), that she had taken upon fleeing China.
Qian also tried to purchase a villa in Tuscany and high-end London properties to launder the proceeds of her fraud, but it was a 2018 attempt to buy a house that put her on the radar of British police, prosecutors said.
And though she seemingly spent most of her days in Britain on a laptop in bed at a series of rental properties, Qian had lofty ambitions to rule Liberland, a purported “micronation” on the Croatia-Serbia border, according to a diary found by police.
BITCOIN CAME FROM CHINA FRAUD
Qian had denied allegations of fraud in China, where authorities say around 128,000 people fell victim to a 40 billion renminbi ($5.62 billion) investment scheme between 2014 and 2017.
But she changed her pleas to guilty in September, on what would have been the first day of her trial, admitting that she had laundered the proceeds of a mammoth fraud, setting up a battle over the billions of bitcoin that remain.
British police had seized devices from a London property Qian was renting and a nearby safety deposit box in 2018, which held around 61,000 bitcoin, after a tip-off from lawyers whom Qian’s helper had approached to try to buy a house.
By the time the police actually accessed the bitcoin in 2021, the haul was worth 1.5 billion pounds. Due to the continuing rise of bitcoin’s value, it is now worth nearly 5 billion pounds ($6.7 billion).
British authorities continue to recover more assets, including about 67 million pounds worth of bitcoin having found a ledger in a purpose-made concealed pocket in the trousers Qian was wearing when she was arrested, prosecutors said.
PROSECUTORS CONSIDER COMPENSATION SCHEME
The seized assets are subject to civil proceedings brought by British prosecutors, who last month said they were considering a compensation scheme for victims of the Chinese fraud, some of whom say they want the bitcoin itself.
Qian was helped in her attempts to launder the bitcoin she smuggled out of China by two facilitators, who were both convicted of money laundering offences in Britain.
Wen Jian worked at a Chinese takeaway in London before she met Qian shortly after her arrival in Britain, taking trips across Europe to turn bitcoin into cash.
Wen denied money laundering but was last year convicted after a retrial of one count and jailed for nearly seven years.
After Wen’s arrest in 2022, Qian found a new helper, Malaysian national Ling Seng Hok, who converted bitcoin into cash, rented properties and hired staff, whose contracts doubled their wages if they were detained or deported.
Ling, 47, also tried to acquire a forged Malaysian or Hong Kong passport for Qian, using a photo of the late Hong Kong actor Shen Dianxia, prosecutors said.
Police say Ling, sentenced on Wednesday to four years and 11 months, inadvertently led them to Qian in northern England in 2024, when some bitcoin was moved into an account opened by Ling.
($1 = 0.7451 pounds)
(Reporting by Sam Tobin)
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