Copyright Benzinga
A woman accused of using billions of British pounds in stolen funds from Chinese investors to buy cryptocurrency is set to be sentenced in London on Tuesday, in a case that the police have deemed the world’s largest crypto seizure. Qian Zhimin, 47, fled China in 2017 under a fake passport after authorities began probing her tech firm, Lantian Gerui. Bitcoin, Mansions, And A Double Life In London After landing in the UK, Zhimin rented a £17,000-a-month mansion in Hampstead, north London. To fund her lavish lifestyle, she needed to convert her massive Bitcoin holdings into cash. Police say she did so by posing as a wealthy antiques heiress, using a personal assistant to move her digital assets into luxury goods and real estate. That assistant, Wen Jian, was later convicted of money laundering and sentenced to six years in prison. When London’s Metropolitan Police finally raided Zhimin’s property, they uncovered tens of thousands of Bitcoin. That is now worth over £5.5 billion ($6.5 billion). See also: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Steady As XRP Surges Amid Government Shutdown Vote High-Stakes Deceit Back in China, Zhimin’s company promised investors it was developing high-tech health products and mining cryptocurrency. In truth, prosecutors say, it was nothing more than an elaborate Ponzi scheme targeting retirees and working-class savers. Over 128,000 people invested, lured by daily payout promises and patriotic marketing that urged citizens to help “make China number one in the world.” Investors were even shown slides featuring Mao Zedong’s son-in-law as a supporter, something that gave the project more credibility. One investor told the BBC that he and his wife poured their savings — and later borrowed money — into the scheme. The couple lost everything. Yu says the stress destroyed his marriage. From “Crypto Queen” To Queen Of Liberland? Zhimin’s private writings, later seized by police, revealed a bizarre six-year plan to reinvent herself, including founding an international bank, buying a Swedish castle, and even becoming the “Queen” of Liberland, an unrecognized microstate on the Croatian-Serbian border. It never happened. Instead, the woman once hailed as a visionary entrepreneur is now at the center of one of the biggest crypto money-laundering cases ever prosecuted in Britain. The Bigger Picture The case underscores how crypto's decentralized allure can still attract traditional fraud, and how digital assets remain a preferred vehicle for laundering illicit funds. For thousands of Chinese pensioners, the dream of “getting rich while lying down” has turned into a nightmare. As Zhimin awaits sentencing, questions swirl over the fate of the crypto assets seized by the police. READ NEXT: Trump Says GOP ‘Broke’ Chuck Schumer As Senate Approves Funding Bill To End Shutdown Image via Shutterstock
