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A Chinese woman pleaded guilty to two offenses in a United Kingdom court after participating in a massive $7.4 billion (BTC) fraud.
The United Kingdom Metropolitan Police say Zhimin Qian, 47, defrauded more than 128,000 victims in China between 2014 and 2017, and she stored the illegally obtained funds in BTC.
Qian then fled China using false documents and entered the UK. Met Police say she attempted to launder the proceeds through property purchases with the assistance of Jian Wen, a UK citizen. Wen was jailed last year and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison.
The Met Police seized 61,000 BTC from Qian in 2018, which the law enforcement agency bills as the biggest crypto seizure ever.
Qian and a Derbyshire-based associate, Hok Seng Ling, 46, were arrested in April 2024. Ling also pleaded guilty to one offense in court this week.
Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, who led the Met’s investigation into Qian, says UK police worked in tandem with Chinese law enforcement to apprehend the fraudsters.
“This outcome marks 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.”
Sentencing for both Qian and Ling is scheduled for November.
