London, Nov 11 (PTI) A 47-year-old Chinese woman was sentenced to 11 years and eight months of imprisonment by a UK court on Tuesday as the leader of a criminal gang behind the UK's largest-ever Bitcoin scam.

Zhimin Qian, aka Yadi Zhang, had pleaded guilty to two offences of possessing illegally obtained cryptocurrency and money laundering the over 60,000 Bitcoin seized by the Metropolitan Police following an extensive investigation.

Southwark Crown Court in London heard that the sheer scale of the seized Bitcoin, the lack of any legitimate evidence for how it was acquired and its connection to a massive investment fraud in China all indicated that it was criminal property.

“There is no doubt this is one of the largest and most complex economic crime investigations we have ever undertaken,” said Will Lyne, the Met Police’s Head of Economic and Cybercrime Command.

“Organised crime groups are using cryptocurrency to move, hide, and invest the profits of serious crime – but every crypto transaction leaves a trace, and the Met works meticulously with partners to follow that digital trail, identify assets and bring offenders to justice," he said.

The court heard that Qian, between 2014 and 2017, was responsible for a massive investment fraud in China involving over 128,000 victims, which led to losses of approximately 600 million pounds. She went on to convert around 20.2 million pounds of the illegally obtained money into Bitcoin.

Qian then fled China and came to the UK, where she began trying to purchase high worth property and jewellery through 43-year-old Jian Wen, who was convicted and imprisoned for money laundering separately at the same court earlier.

When the duo was hampered by difficulties of transferring sufficient Bitcoin into cash, Qian sought the help of Malaysian national Seng Hok Ling, who transferred approximately 2.5 million pounds on her behalf.

Ling, 47, was sentenced to four years and 11 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to one count of a money laundering related offence at the same court this week.

It was Metropolitan Police's surveillance of Ling that eventually led to the discovery of Qian in the city of York, north-east England, and both were arrested in April 2024. Assets seized from them included encrypted devices, cash, gold and further cryptocurrency.

“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used by organised criminals to disguise and transfer assets, so that fraudsters may enjoy the benefits of their criminal conduct.

"This case, involving the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the UK, illustrates the scale of criminal proceeds available to those fraudsters," said Neil Colville, Unit Head Prosecutor in the Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate of the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

“The CPS will now work to ensure, through criminal confiscation and civil proceedings, that the criminal assets remain beyond the fraudsters’ reach to firstly freeze and then look to seize the very large quantity of cryptocurrency and other assets, currently worth around 4.8 billion pounds, used by Zhimin Qian to fund her extravagant lifestyle," he said.

UK Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer welcomed the outcome and described such fraud as a “destructive and devastating crime” that harms business confidence and the economy.

“Together Zhimin Qian and Senghok Ling caused misery upon thousands of victims to fund their lavish lifestyles. Thanks to the close partnership between the Met and the CPS, they have seized substantial amounts of cryptocurrency and secured the conviction and sentencing of these two prolific fraudsters – preventing more victims from coming to harm,” he said. PTI AK SCY SCY

Cryptocurrency money laundering exposed through tracing, leading to convictions and substantial asset seizures and confiscation efforts. Conviction for possessing illegally obtained cryptocurrency and money laundering was based on the scale of seized Bitcoin, lack of legitimate provenance and connection to a large investment fraud, leading to recovery of encrypted devices, cash, gold and further cryptocurrency and prompting criminal confiscation and civil proceedings to freeze and seek seizure of those assets.