Content reprinted from WeChat official account: most Chinese
Author | Zheng Siji
Referrer | JIANG, DUAN
A few years ago, Jian Wen, who was still working in a take away restaurant and living in poverty, probably did not expect that she would be involved in the world's largest money laundering case.
The police seized more than 61000 Bitcoins worth about 3.4 billion pounds (about 31 billion yuan) at her residence. This is not only the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized by British police, but also the largest money laundering case in the world.
● Cash seized by the police
01
"Counter attack" of female migrant workers
In the early morning of October 31, 2018, when people were still asleep, British police raided a red brick manor in Hampstead, north London.
● Jane Wen's residence
At this moment, Jian Wen from China lives in this manor. In the face of this sudden change, she was unprepared.
Ten years ago, Jane Wen returned to England with her husband Markus Balaklaf. At that time, she was pregnant and looked forward to a wonderful life in a foreign country.
But to my surprise, my husband divorced her after her son was born. In order to earn a living and raise her son, Jane Wen, who is alone in a foreign land, can only work several jobs at the same time.
In Europe, if a Chinese woman with nothing wants to survive, she has to do the dirtiest and most tiring work. Hotel cleaning and restaurant service are few options. These jobs made Jian Wen feel tired and without dignity. She was simply "waiting on" those foreigners, and was very frustrated.
Jane Wen is not a person who is accustomed to making decisions. In order to get better treatment, what Jane Wen wants to do is come back from studying for a degree. In foreign countries, only with a high degree can you get a high salary. Following this philosophy, Jane Wen studied for a law diploma and a bachelor's degree in economics in her spare time.
In the summer of 2017, she moved to London.
I thought that life could be improved when I got my degree and moved to a big city, but the reality slapped her hard. In London, she still had a hard time. With no success in finding a job, she can only work in a Chinese restaurant delivery shop. She lives in a dark and humid small room downstairs of the restaurant. Her meager salary can barely support her and her son's life.
At that time, Jane Wen could not imagine that a "chance" would soon come and let her fly from the earth to the sky.
Everything comes from a job advertisement.
02
Free lunch
At that time, Jian Wen accidentally saw a job advertisement. The advertisement comes from a woman named "Zhang Yadi". The recruitment message says that Ms. Zhang Yadi, who has traveled to the UK for business, hopes to recruit a Chinese living assistant who can speak Mandarin and English, which is expensive.
Can speak Mandarin, Chinese, expensive.
These keywords hit Jane Wen at once. After looking for such a long time, either the conditions are not met, or the salary is not ideal. The first time there is a job so suitable for her, it is simply tailored for her.
Try your best, maybe your bike will become a motorcycle.
● Jian Wen in Germany
Jane Wen was very excited and immediately contacted the man named Zhang Yadi. Then she met the employer at the five-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington.
Zhang Yadi looks very young in traditional Thai clothes.
However, her actions are not convenient. She breathes heavily when talking. Zhang Yadi told Jane that it was because of an accident. Zhang Yadi said that she was a successful businessman in the international high-end jewelry business. She often traveled around the world and did not understand English, so she needed someone who could take care of and assist her.
At that time, her salary was 4000 pounds (about 36500 yuan) per month.
This number made Jane Wen overjoyed. Looking back on the hard times in the past, Zhang Yadi was like a light, illuminating Jane Wen's life. Jian Wen quickly agreed to Zhang Yadi's invitation.
My new job is as Zhang Yadi's life assistant, taking care of Zhang Yadi's daily life.
At that time, Jian Wen found that Zhang Yadi often had nightmares and woke up screaming at night, as if she had experienced something terrible. Looking at such a weak boss, Jane Wen, who is also a woman, is very sympathetic. She can't help taking care of Zhang Yadi more carefully.
In the following months, Jianwen's life changed dramatically.
She moved from a dark basement into a 5 million pound manor in North London. In the autumn of 2017, Jane Wen rented a large house in London. The monthly rent of the property is up to 17000 pounds, and she paid the rent for six months in a lump sum.
Later, she arranged an aristocratic school near the mansion for her son, with a tuition of 6000 pounds per semester. He also bought a Mercedes Benz E-Class car for himself and became a distinguished customer of Harold, the top luxury department store in Britain, with an average monthly consumption of 30000 pounds.
Then she embarked on a journey of global luxury.
First, I bought two apartments in Dubai, and then I spent a lot of money on jewelry.
Jian Wen is just like a woman in charge of Shuangwen. It is not too fast to get rich by rocket.
However, at this time, the British police have quietly watched her. On the one hand, the source of her huge property is unknown, and on the other hand, it is because of her employer, the woman named Zhang Yadi.
When the police arrested Jane Wen, Zhang Yadi's real identity gradually surfaced.
03
Abscond mastermind
Zhang Yadi, whose real name is Zhimin Qian, was the mastermind of the largest money laundering case in history, the illegal fund-raising case of Lan Tiange Rui.
In March 2014, Qian Zhimin established Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. She first persuaded Ren to act as the sole shareholder and legal representative of the company with a monthly salary of 26000 yuan and a one-time bonus of 997 thousand yuan as bait.
● Qian Zhimin
She assured Ren that if the company encountered any problems, she would solve them and would not let him get into trouble. After perfect invisibility, Qian Zhimin opened a Bitcoin account in the name of Ren, but all the funds in the account were controlled by Qian Zhimin.
Soon, the company launched a variety of "short-term investment and wealth management" products. The duration of wealth management products ranged from half a year to 30 months, the starting point of investment ranged from 6000 to 60000, and the annual rate of return advertised was 100% to 300%.
High interest rates have attracted many people, especially the elderly. Through pyramid selling, Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. has established dozens of branches in 30 provinces and cities across the country.
In July 2017, Lantian Gerui stopped rebate on the grounds of upgrading the financial system. After receiving reports from many victims, the relevant departments of China launched an investigation that month.
The cunning Qian Zhimin quickly transferred the investors' funds to an account in the cryptocurrency exchange, converted them into Bitcoin and fled the country.
So how much money did Qian Zhimin cheat?
In one of her sealed accounts, the balance seen by the police was 6.3 billion US dollars, equivalent to 45.6 billion yuan, all of which were hard-earned money of Chinese investors.
In Qian Zhimin's diary, there is a perfect plan to get rid of her guilt: first buy a private country, Liberland, then build the largest Buddhist temple in Europe, and then ask religious leaders to canonize her as a reincarnated goddess and Queen of Liberland. After becoming a head of state, one can naturally obtain diplomatic immunity.
Before realizing this plan, she plans to take refuge in Britain.
When Qian Zhimin fled to England, he made careful arrangements.
● Passport applied by Qian Zhimin with false identity
She first bought a Myanmar passport in the name of Nan Yin, then pretended to be Yadi Zhang and got a Saint Kitts and Nevis passport.
After arriving in London, Qian Zhimin needs to exchange his Bitcoin into cash, jewelry and other valuables.
In order to become perfectly invisible again, she chose Jane Wen.
Jian Wen, who started as a life assistant, soon asked Qian Zhimin to help open a series of cryptocurrency accounts and record every transaction in detail on his notebook after gaining Qian Zhimin's trust.
Later, the two of them changed their names and traveled around Europe as jewelry dealers, selling Bitcoin and buying high-end jewelry, collecting "hard currency".
The Daily Mail speculated that Qian Zhimin held several passports under a pseudonym and has been moving Bitcoin around the world. By the time the safe is fully unlocked in 2021, the value of these seized virtual currencies has reached 3.4 billion pounds. At the current price of $71000 each, the total value of these bitcoins has soared to $4.331 billion (about 31 billion yuan).
After Jane Wen was arrested, Qian Zhimin absconded at the first time, and transferred 2 billion dollars worth of Bitcoin.
The rest was left to Jian Wen to carry.
04
Judgement of fate
In 2023, Jian Wen was tried for the first time.
During the trial of the British prosecutor, she seemed to be extremely condescending: "Who would have thought that she should have been using a false identity all the time?"
Jian Wen admitted that she did participate in the processing of cryptocurrency, but she insisted that she did not know from beginning to end that these funds were the proceeds of crime. She said, "Qian Zhimin and I are only employed, and I have been kept in the dark." "Until now, I don't know where Qian Zhimin is."
In the face of 12 charges, because of insufficient evidence, Jane Wen's 2 charges could not be determined, and 10 charges were acquitted.
The trial lasted more than a year.
On March 18, 2023, Jian Wen once again stood in court to accept the second trial, adding another charge due to the newly discovered evidence.
Due to the large scale of the case involved, Jian Wen was listed as a Class A criminal, that is, the most dangerous criminal who would pose the most serious threat to society, police or national security once escaped.
● Jian Wen
Waiting for Jane Wen, will be a long prison career.
Qian Zhimin, who absconded, was listed on the red wanted list by Interpol.
How to deal with the 61000 bitcoins seized by the British police has also become the focus of public opinion.
According to the Financial Times, the British Royal Prosecutor's Office has filed a civil recovery procedure with the High Court to determine whether there are other legitimate rights holders with regard to the processing of 61000 bitcoins. Once these assets are formally confiscated, half of them will be owned by the British police and the other half will be owned by the British Home Office according to regulations.
That is to say, if 130000 Chinese victims or our judicial department claim and recover this right, the British Home Office and the police will make compensation. If not, the money will belong to the British Home Office and the British police.
Behind the 45.6 billion yuan, there are 130000 Chinese victims and 130000 families' hard-earned money. No one wants to recover the money.
However, due to the relevant laws and regulations on the sealing up, freezing, seizure and disposal of virtual currency, as well as the imperfect international coordination and cooperation on anti money laundering, China is facing many difficulties "difficult to start or even impossible to start", which is also a global problem.
At the beginning of April, thousands of Chinese victims appealed for the return of more than 3 billion pounds worth of Bitcoin seized in Britain.
Professor Yan Lixin, professor of finance at the School of International Finance of Fudan University and executive director of the China Anti money Laundering Research Center, said that the Chinese government, judicial authorities and the police would not sit idly by. We have the right to pursue the case, and the British side should cooperate and support us.
On May 10 local time, the case will be tried. I believe that the state will do its utmost to recover the rights of our victims.
Back to Jian Wen, this is a woman with a tragic color.
Qian Zhimin's appearance is a lifesaving straw for her who lives hard in a foreign country. In the process of processing Bitcoin encryption and throwing money around for shopping, she could not have doubted the origin of these huge sums, but her desire to turn over automatically shielded this.
She said that she just wanted her son to live better, but there was never any pie in the sky.
If so, there is only one possibility:
This pie is poisonous.
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Editor in charge: Shi Xiuzhen SF183
