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On Friday local time, a court in London, England sentenced a sentencing ruling on a money laundering case involving Bitcoin. A Chinese-British woman was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months for assisting her employer in laundering money.
This case also attracted much attention from investors from both countries because of “the British police seized 61,000 bitcoins” and a case of illegally absorbing public deposits in China many years ago.
Judge: No doubt you know what you are doing
Public information shows that the defendant Jian Wen in this case was born in China. He went to the UK with her husband Marcus Barracloough when she was 7 months pregnant in 2007.Later, because her husband “has a violent tendency”, the two divorced in 2010. Jian Wen lived with his son, working and studying for diplomas in law and economics.
In 2017, Jian Wen, who was working in a London Chinese restaurant and living in a basement, saw an advertisement for “recruiting housekeepers”, and the employer behind it was Qian Zhimin, who was named “Yadi Zhang”, – Lantian GeruiThe mastermind behind the illegal absorption of public deposits.According to the police report at the time, the case involved 43 billion yuan of funds, and 126,000 investors from 31 provinces, cities and autonomous regions were involved.
On the eve of the incident, Qian Zhimin used a fake passport and fled to London, England with a laptop with an encrypted wallet.Due to language barriers, she urgently needed a Chinese to handle life affairs and exchange Bitcoin for real estate, jewelry, etc.
According to British police, after becoming Qian Zhimin’s assistant, Jian Wen instantly entered a “luxury state of life” – moving from the basement into a six-bedroom apartment with a monthly rent of £17,000, buying luxury goods and starting a “global trip””, and at the same time, they bought real estate in many places in Europe and Dubai.
(Jian Wen travels in Germany, source: London Police Department)
However, when Jian Wen tried to buy multiple London mansions worth tens of millions of pounds, the anti-money laundering process in the UK was triggered.Based on her income of only £5,979 in 2016/2017, and she was unable to explain the source of Bitcoin for the purchase of the house, the British police searched her residence on October 31, 2018 and seized the hidden bits.Coin computer.
Dramatically, British police did not find that up to 61,000 bitcoins were hidden in their computers until two and a half years later.Jian Wen was arrested in May 2021, while Qian Zhimin fled the UK before British police tried to question her.
After several trials over the past few years, a jury at the Southwark Criminal Court in London ruled in March this year that Jian Wen was found guilty of “laundering 150 bitcoins for a Chinese woman” between 2017 and 2022.Jian Wen has always rejected all charges against her and plans to appeal the conviction.
During the trial on Friday, Jian Wen’s defense attorney Mark Harries said that Wen was already a victim before becoming a criminal, and there was no doubt that she was deceived and exploited by the so-called “planner”.She is just a “middleman who presses the Bitcoin trading button” and has limited awareness of the level of crime she is doing.
Prosecutor Gillian Jones emphasized that Jian Wen is driven by “greed” and her own economic interests, rather than being affected by coercion, intimidation or exploitation, and that she is also a decision maker who operates her encrypted wallet.
Apparently, judge Sally-Ann Hales of this case did not accept the defense’s statement in the end, and she told Jian Wen during the sentencing on Friday: “This is a complex and involves a major plan, and I have no doubt you know yourself.”What are you doing.”
Then…what about Qian Zhimin?
After Jian Wen was arrested, clues about Qian Zhimin’s whereabouts were interrupted.However, according to the Financial Times, Qian Zhimin, who had disappeared for a long time, returned to London in April this year and was detained and appeared in court to face criminal charges by the British prosecutor.
It is reported that the Crown Prosecutor’s Office accused her of possessing, obtaining and using criminal property, which is cryptocurrencies, in many places in London and the UK from October 1, 2017 to April this year.
One thing that is interesting is that Qian Zhimin claimed in the information provided to the court that her birth date was November 10, 1990, but based on information from all parties, she should have actually been born in 1978.
Through the translation, Qian Zhimin said in court that he did not plead guilty, but did not apply for bail.The judge decided that she would remain in the detention center and forwarded the case to the Southwark Criminal Court where Jian Wen had previously tried.
