The end of the “Goddess of Wealth”: The biggest scammer in cryptocurrency was caught after 5 years on the run. He had the passwords sewn into his clothes
The “Goddess of Wealth”, the woman who defrauded over 100,000 investors and ran away with billions in cryptocurrencies, was caught after five years of spectacular escape. British police found more than £5 billion worth of bitcoins right in his London villa – the biggest cryptocurrency seizure in UK history.
source: British Police/X
Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, is 45 years old and is accused of defrauding around 128,000 people in China through a Ponzi investment scheme. The woman would have then fled to Great Britain, using a passport issued by the Caribbean state of Saint Kitts and Nevis, to escape the Chinese authorities, according to metro.
Settled in a luxurious villa in Hampstead, an exclusive district in north London, Qian began to launder the huge sums obtained illegally, turning them into bitcoins and investing in expensive properties and luxury goods.
Zhimin Qian was arrested Photo: British police
In 2018, the British police raided her residence in London, valued at over 5 million pounds. Inside, investigators discovered 5 billion pounds worth of cryptocurrencies (about 6.2 billion euros) hidden in digital devices, as well as handwritten passwords hidden in the pockets of the woman's sweatpants.
After the raid, Qian managed to flee, disappearing without a trace for five years. Police later learned that she hid in various Airbnb apartments, booked by underworld intermediaries who helped her stay one step ahead of investigators.
She was found in York with the passwords sewn into her clothes
After years of searching, the “Bitcoin Queen” was located last year in the city of York, in the north of England.
At the time of the arrest, the investigators discovered that the woman had a secret pocket sewn inside her sweatpants, in which she kept codes and passwords that proved the route of the money.
These handwritten notes proved essential for investigators, who thus managed to recover another 67 million pounds and definitively link Qian to the huge fraud scheme.
One of his accomplices, Jian Wen, a former worker in a Chinese restaurant in East London, was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison. She allegedly helped Qian launder the money, without understanding, she says, the true source of the funds.
Wen quickly moved from a modest life to the luxury of the villa in Hampstead, where she lived with her son, brought from China and enrolled in a private school. Before long, she was driving a Mercedes and living like a prosperous businesswoman.
A third accomplice, Hok Seng Ling, 46, was described by police as “the butler” to Qian. He pleaded guilty to the transfer of illegally obtained bitcoins and to aiding and abetting the woman's hiding.
British police: “One of the biggest money laundering in history”
“This is one of the biggest money laundering cases in UK history and one of the most valuable cryptocurrency cases globally”said Will Lyne, head of the economic and cyber crime command of the Metropolitan Police in London.
“Through meticulous investigations and unprecedented cooperation with the Chinese authorities, we were able to demonstrate the criminal origin of the assets Qian attempted to launder in the UK. Our thoughts go out to the thousands of victims of this scam.” he added.
Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, who led the investigation, said Qian's capture was the result of “of years of painstaking work and an unprecedented international cooperation”.
Meanwhile, the thousands of investors in China who were duped by Qian are trying to get some of their money back. The seized cryptocurrencies are now in the custody of British authorities.
