Sept. 30 (UPI) — A 47-year-old Chinese national has pleaded guilty in Britain to a multi-billion-dollar Bitcoin scheme, according to Metropolitan Police, which said it has made what is possibly the “world’s largest” cryptocurrency seizure, worth more than $7.3 billion
Metropolitan Police said Zhimin Qian of no fixed address pleaded guilty Monday to charges of acquiring criminal property and possessing criminal property, with the property in both offenses being cryptocurrency.
The charges stem from allegations that Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, orchestrated a massive fraud scheme in her native China, defrauding more than 128,000 victims between 2014 and 2017.
Authorities said she stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets. She fled to Britain in September 2018 with the use of false documents and attempted to launder the proceeds by purchasing property.
wHer guilty plea on Monday follows seven years of investigation by the Metropolitan Police, authorities said.
“Today’s guilty plea marks the culmination of years of dedicated investigation by the Met’s Economic Crime teams and our partners,” Will Lyne, Metropolitan Police’s head of Economic and Cybercrime Command, said in a statement.
“This is one of the largest money laundering cases in U.K. history and among the highest-value cryptocurrency cases globally.
“I am extremely proud of the team.”
Authorities said that Qian had worked with Jian Wen, who was sentenced to more than 6 1/2 years in prison for her role in the scheme in January.
Wen, a 44-year-old former restaurant worker, had purchased two properties worth more than $672,000 in Dubai for Qian in 2019.
Authorities said that Wen was in possession of a cryptocurrency wallet with more than $403.3 million. She told police that she had worked for a Chinese national who had asked her to buy the Dubai properties and that she was unaware that the Bitcoins in her possession were the product of crime.
Metropolitan Police said it had seized more than 61,000 Bitcoin from Qian.
Specifics of how Qian defrauded victims of so much money in China were not initially clear.
“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used by organized criminals to disguise and transfer assets, so that fraudsters may enjoy the benefits of their criminal conduct,” Robin Weyell, deputy chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said.
“This case, involving the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the U.K., illustrates the scale of criminal proceeds available to those fraudsters.”