‘Cryptoqueen’ scammer Zhimin Qian jailed 11 years in the UK

Zhimin Qian, the Chinese “cryptoqueen” arrested for masterminding a $5.5 billion Bitcoin scam, has received an 11-year jail sentence in the U.K.

Zhimin Qian, 47, the mastermind of a major crypto fraud scheme that saw over 128,000 people across China defrauded between 2014 and 2017, was sentenced to 11 years and eight months at London’s Southwark Crown Court. Reuters reported on the development.

The “Goddess of Wealth”, also known as Yadi Zhang, pleaded guilty to two charges of money laundering in September.

On November 11, Judge Sally-Ann Hales handed down the prison sentence. Qian’s arrest followed an extensive dragnet set up by UK police targeting the fraudster, who fled China and tried to assume a new identity in Britain.

Notably, the jailing so far caps a significant case that saw British police seize over 61,000 bitcoin (BTC), one of the world’s largest BTC seizures. That haul, at current Bitcoin prices, is worth over $6 billion.

Zhimin Qian, the Bitcoin fraudster

Qian, 47, changed her plea and admitted to possessing and transferring criminal property via crypto. Initially, she claimed to be a victim of a government crackdown in China and a “successful crypto entrepreneur”.

But investigations revealed that Qian’s company offered an investment to unsuspecting investors who put nearly 40 billion renminbi (approximately $5.5 billion) into it. The fraud that followed saw her embezzle over 6 billion renminbi, with proceeds hodled in Bitcoin.

When Chinese authorities closed in on the architects of the scam, Qian fled. She eventually entered the UK with fake documents and embarked on a laundering spree. Authorities say she enlisted accomplices and lived large as she revelled in the ill-gotten crypto fortune.

Jian Wen, one of the accomplices, received a sentence of over six years in jail. For Qian, the 11-year sentence is slightly lower than the up to 14 years she faced.