Jian Wen, a British-Chinese lady, is being prosecuted in London for allegedly aiding Yadi Zhang, a wanted person, in the laundering of Bitcoin (BTC) that was acquired from the earnings of an earlier investment scam that included about 130,000 people.
Authorities found devices containing more than 61,000 Bitcoin, which originated from the $6.34 billion Zhang had previously stolen from Chinese investors.
A Phishing Chinese Investment Plan
Jian Wen, who is presently on trial, is accused of money laundering on three counts after she allegedly assisted Yadi Zhang, a fraudster whose true identity is Zhimin Qian.
Prosecutors claim that between 2014 and 2017, Zhang stole £5 billion ($6.34 billion) from unwary Chinese investors through a fictitious wealth management operation. The money was subsequently exchanged for Bitcoin. In 2017, she left China for London, and used a false identity to avoid detection by Chinese officials.
Wen, who arrived in the UK in 2007 and obtained British citizenship in 2018, is said to be Zhang’s front-runner, according to Gillian Jones KC, the Crown Prosecution Service’s attorney.
In a London court, Jones further stated to the jury that Wen assisted Zhang in converting some of the latter’s Bitcoin into real estate, money, jewelry, and other opulent items. She also mentioned that Wen’s attempt to buy Zhang a £12.5 million London property in 2018 through a legal firm failed because the firm was unable to identify the source of the Bitcoin.
Wen, meantime, has entered a not guilty plea, claiming to be Zhang’s caregiver and to have thought that the latter’s Bitcoin came from reliable sources.
An Immense Takeover
The prosecution also informed the jury that in 2018 the Metropolitan Police discovered four different devices—one in a safety deposit box and the other in a house where Wen and Zhang were living at the time—that together contained over 61,000 Bitcoin.
The total value of all the cryptocurrency that the police seized in 2021 was estimated to be £1.4 billion ($1.77 billion), making it one of the biggest seizures ever made. At the present Bitcoin price, 61,000 BTC is worth $2.6 billion.
Zhang is believed to have left the United Kingdom, and prosecutors claim that she is still at large while Wen’s trial is still proceeding.
In related news, two men were found to have more than 50,000 Bitcoin valued at over $2 billion by German police violated copyright laws after running a website that promoted infringement.
