A Chinese national, Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, has been convicted in the United Kingdom for her role in what authorities have described as the world’s largest single cryptocurrency seizure, valued at more than £5.5 billion.
Qian, 47, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, September 29, to charges of acquiring and holding vast sums of illegally obtained money, which she converted into bitcoin.
According to the Metropolitan Police, she masterminded a massive fraud operation in China between 2014 and 2017, defrauding over 128,000 victims. The stolen funds were stored in bitcoin wallets, with investigators seizing at least 61,000 of them.
“Between 2014–2017, Zhang orchestrated a large-scale fraud in China through defrauding over 128,000 victims and went on to store the illegally obtained funds in bitcoin assets,” the Met said in a statement.
After fleeing China using false documents, Qian entered the UK in September 2018. Authorities said she attempted to launder the stolen money by investing in property with the help of an accomplice, Jian Wen.
Her arrest concluded a seven-year international investigation that spanned multiple jurisdictions and involved the review of thousands of documents.
Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, who led the investigation, described the outcome as the result of “years of painstaking work.”
“When our team located Zhimin Qian, she had been evading justice for five years, and her arrest triggered a complex investigation requiring evidence from multiple jurisdictions and the careful review of thousands of documents,” she said.
Will Lyne, head of the Met’s Economic and Cybercrime Command, added: “This is one of the largest money laundering cases in UK history and among the highest-value cryptocurrency cases globally.”
Jian Wen, a 44-year-old former takeaway worker, was jailed last year for six years and eight months for her role in helping Qian launder the proceeds.
Prosecutors revealed that Wen’s sudden lifestyle shift—from living above a restaurant to renting a multimillion-pound house in London—along with property purchases in Dubai worth over £500,000, raised red flags. Investigators later linked her to cryptocurrency transactions exceeding £300 million.
According to the Crown Prosecution Service, “Met investigators proved she had been involved in facilitating the movement of a cryptocurrency wallet, which contained 150 bitcoin. At the relevant time this was valued at £1.7m.”
Qian remains in custody and is awaiting sentencing.
