A Chinese woman nicknamed the “Goddess of Wealth” has been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison by a UK court for masterminding a multibillion-dollar bitcoin fraud that duped over 100,000 investors.
Zhimin Qian, 47, was found guilty of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded around 128,000 people in China between 2014 and 2017, promising returns of up to 300 percent. The scheme raised billions of dollars, much of which was converted into bitcoin.
British authorities later seized 61,000 bitcoins worth more than £5 billion ($6.6 billion), the largest single cryptocurrency seizure in the world, according to the Metropolitan Police. Qian was arrested in the northern English city of York in 2024 after years of evading capture.
Judge Sally-Ann Hales, who handed down the sentence at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, described the crimes as “highly sophisticated and requiring careful planning,” adding, “Your motive was one of pure greed.”
Qian pleaded guilty in September to possessing and transferring criminal property. Her lawyer, Roger Sahota, said after sentencing that she “accepts” her conviction, noting, “She never set out to commit fraud but recognises her investment schemes were fraudulent and misled those who trusted her. She is deeply sorry for the distress suffered by investors and hopes some good endures from the wealth her work created.”
A Malaysian accomplice, Seng Hok Ling, also 47, was sentenced to four years and 11 months after pleading guilty to one count of transferring criminal property.
Following scrutiny from Chinese authorities, Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, fled her home country in 2017 and relocated to the UK, where she lived a lavish lifestyle. She rented a £17,000-a-month London property, stayed in luxury hotels across Europe, and purchased jewellery, including two watches worth nearly £120,000.
Police surveillance of Ling eventually led to Qian’s arrest in April 2024. Her associate, Jian Wen, was jailed last year for six years and eight months for her role in the scam.
The Metropolitan Police’s head of economic and cybercrime command, Will Lyne, said the seven-year investigation was one of the largest and most complex the force had ever undertaken, requiring collaboration with Chinese law enforcement.
More than 1,300 victims have come forward in ongoing civil proceedings at London’s High Court, where British authorities are developing a compensation scheme.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP that Chinese and British authorities are “cooperating on cross-border fugitive and asset recovery” in connection with the case.
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