The “Chinese goddess of wealth” who washed billions in Bitcoin in London. Her ambition: the founding of her own state- Liberland

A historical case in the field of financial crimes and digital currencies is written in London. Jimin Qian, also known as Yandi Zhang, pleads guilty for the biggest confiscation of cryptocurrencies in history, worth over 5 billion pounds ($ 6.7 billion).

Between 2014 and 2017, Qian drove a massive fraud in China, cheating over 128,000 investors. The money was stored in Bitcoin, the London Metropolitan Police declaring that it confiscated a total of 61,000 BTC.

According to a BBC report, the 47 -year -old woman fled China with false documents and settled in the UK, where she tried to wash the stolen funds by purchasing real estate.

After five years in which she was fugitive, she was arrested and faced an investigation of several years that started in 2018, following information on suspicious transfers.

Qian's dreams

Jimin Qian first came to the attention of British authorities in 2018, when a ray on a villa in Hampstead led to the confiscation of devices containing 61,000 bitcoins – one of the greatest digital discoveries ever made by the police. However, the authorities did not realize their value until in 2021, after Qian disappeared.

There is little known about her life before 2014, when Tianjin Lantian Geri Electronic Technology founded in China, a company that sold investment products with yields up to 300% and claimed to be involved in Bitcoin mining. When investigations began in China, Qian converted funds in Bitcoin and fled the summer of 2017, using different identities to escape.

According to the Financial Times, in the files of the British police, a digital journal was found, in which he recorded his dreams: he wanted to be crowned as a “reborn god” by the Dalai Lama and to establish his own kingdom, the free state, a strip of land uninhabited on the Danube, between Croatia and Serbia. Her vision included a temple, an airport, a port and even a crown and a skeptner worth 5 million pounds.

However, her daily life was far from being a great story. According to Wen's testimony, Qian had difficulty walking due to a car accident and spent up to 20 hours a day in bed with the laptop, playing games, shopping online and trading Bitcoin.

“Goddess of wealth” and thousands of investors

In China, Qian promoted his plan as an opportunity to transform the country into a global financial and technological center. Through a ghost company, she promised daily dividends and guaranteed profits.

The Chinese press called it the “goddess of wealth”, while investors-many of them medium and higher directors, even bankers or judges-have invested between hundreds of thousands and tens of millions.

The spread was often done orally, friends and relatives convincing each other to participate.

“Right hand” and luxury investments

The case also involves Jian Wen, a former employee at a Chinese restaurant in London, who helped washing income. Wen, 44, was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison last year.

In a short period of time, he left the apartment above the restaurant for a luxury villa in northern London, also buying two properties in Dubai worth over 500,000 pounds.

The Metropolitan Police confiscated from Wen Bitcoin worth over 300 million pounds, while the Crown Prosecutor's Office (CPS) mentioned that the origin of the money cannot be explained by any legitimate activity.

Battle for confiscated funds

Although Qian's lawyer claimed that “increasing the value of cryptocurrencies is sufficient to compensate for investors”, the problem remains open: there is information that the British government could try to retain the confiscated amounts, as the BBC reported.

The changes made to the legislation on financial offenses, promoted by the previous conservative government, allow the state to confirm, freeze and recover digital assets. Some provisions also allow the victims to request a part of the funds.

The conviction marks the climax of an investigation that lasted several years

For British authorities, the case is an example of how cryptocurrencies are increasingly used by criminal organizations to hide or transfer income.

“This conviction marks the highlight of a complex investigation, which lasted several years,” said Will Lin, the head of the unit of financial and cyber crimes within the Metropolitan Police. Cooperation with Chinese authorities continues because the investigation remains open.

Qian remains in arrest and awaits his sentence, which will be established after the completion of the process of its accomplices.