In brief
- Zhimin Qian has been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in jail after orchestrating a pyramid scheme that resulted in the UK’s largest crypto seizure.
- Qian defrauded Chinese pensioners through a fake health company and crypto mining firm, storing the criminal gains in Bitcoin.
- UK authorities seized 61,000 BTC linked to the case, prompting disputes over how the $6.4 billion fortune will be disbursed.
Chinese national Zhimin Qian, the self-styled tech entrepreneur behind one of the country’s largest investment frauds, was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday for orchestrating a vast pyramid scheme that defrauded more than 120,000 Chinese pensioners.
Qian, who also went by the name Yadi Zhang, pleaded guilty in September to fraud and money laundering charges connected to her company Lantian Gerui, which promised riches from high-tech health products and cryptocurrency mining ventures. She was sentenced alongside her Malaysian associate Seng Hok Ling, who received four years and 11 months for his role as her fixer and financial conduit.
The 47-year-old fled China in 2017 on a fake passport, settling in the UK where she lived a life of opulence until her arrest in York in April 2024. When police raided her $21,000-a-month Hampstead Heath mansion, they uncovered a trove of digital assets totalling 61,000 BTC, now worth roughly $6.4 billion, in what the Metropolitan Police described as the largest cryptocurrency seizure in history.
At its height, Qian’s company Lantian Gerui attracted billions in deposits from mostly elderly Chinese investors, many persuaded to invest at elaborate banquets and rallies across China. However, Chinese authorities say money paid out to investors came from deposits from new investors rather than crypto or other business ventures.
Prosecutors said Qian used patriotism and poetry to win over her victims, with even the son-in-law of Chairman Mao speaking at a Lantian Gerui event. When payouts suddenly stopped in 2017, she disappeared and fled the country.
Qian’s ambitious schemes
In London, Qian reinvented herself as an international businesswoman. She rented luxury homes, shopped extravagantly online, and even mused in her diaries about buying a Swedish castle, acquiring a British bank, and befriending a duke.
Her writings also revealed eccentric ambitions, including a desire to become “Queen of Liberland,” a self-proclaimed microstate on the Danube, where Tron founder Justin Sun is currently prime minister.
Her network in the UK included Jian Wen, a former takeaway worker who helped launder millions through cryptocurrency exchanges and shell companies. Wen was sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering last year.
What happens to the seized Bitcoin?
While Tuesday’s sentencing may have brought some measure of closure to Qian’s victims, the fate of the seized Bitcoin remains unresolved.
The crypto haul has become the subject of a growing tug-of-war between the UK government and China, as both sides stake claims to the fortune. Victims’ advocates insist the Bitcoin belongs to defrauded investors, while Treasury officials have privately floated the idea of retaining it to shore up Britain’s public finances.
Civil proceedings are underway to determine how—and to whom—the seized Bitcoin will be distributed but the process could take years. Many victims, lawyers note, never transferred funds directly to Lantian Gerui but to regional promoters, complicating their claims. They also paid in fiat rather than crypto, leading to questions of who should pocket the appreciated funds.
“The victims have been without their property for some ten years now and are entitled to recover their property from the Bitcoin frozen in this jurisdiction,” said William Glover and Stephen Cartwright, who represent several of the defrauded pensioners, in a previous statement to Decrypt. “The UK state does not have the right to freely dispose of the frozen Bitcoin over victims’ legitimate legal and proprietary interests.”
Yet other experts believe the British state may be tempted to keep some or all of the assets under the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme, which channels confiscated funds back into law enforcement and government coffers.
Nick Harris, CEO at crypto asset recovery firm CryptoCare, told Decrypt keeping the crypto could be strategic, unlike practices in the U.S. or Australia where funds are often repurposed broadly. “A UK Bitcoin reserve could be a forward-thinking move in this case,” he said.
“By retaining confiscated Bitcoin, the UK could establish a strategic reserve, strengthening its position in the global crypto economy while supporting victims through separate compensation mechanisms.”
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