A Chinese woman who masterminded a multibillion-dollar bitcoin scam and evaded authorities for years was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in jail by a UK court Tuesday.
Nicknamed the “goddess of wealth”, 47-year-old Zhimin Qian was accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded around 128,000 people in China between 2014 and 2017.
It raised billions of dollars, much of which was converted to bitcoin.
After she came to the UK and during a multiyear investigation where she evaded capture, British police seized 61,000 bitcoin worth more than œ5 billion ($6.6 billion), believed to be a record in crytocurrency-related crime.
She was arrested in the northern English city of York in 2024.
Qian, who pleaded guilty to acquiring and possessing criminal property in September, received the sentence at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
A Malaysian accomplice, Seng Hok Ling, also 47, was jailed at the same court for four years and 11 months after he pleaded guilty to one count of transferring criminal property.
“It has been one of the largest money-laundering cases in UK history by value and the largest confirmed seizure of criminal assets in Europe,” a spokesperson for London’s police said at a briefing on Friday.
“In terms of what will happen with the bitcoin seized, the Crown Prosecution Services are leading a separate civil recovery process,” the spokesperson added.
