On Friday local time, a court in London, England, made a sentencing ruling on a money laundering case involving Bitcoin. Jian Wen, a Chinese British woman, was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months for assisting her employer in money laundering.
According to Sanlian Life Weekly, the "employer" of Wen Jian's service was Qian Zhimin, who had cheated more than 120000 Chinese investors. On April 24 local time, Qian Zhimin appeared in court in London for trial. She is accused of acquiring, using or holding crime related cryptocurrencies in London and other parts of the United Kingdom from October 1, 2017 to April 23, 2024. These cryptocurrencies originate from her huge economic fraud in China.
During the investigation of Wen Qian and Wen Qian, the British police seized more than 61000 bitcoins, the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized in the UK. According to the current market price, the market value of this virtual currency asset is about US $4.2 billion (about RMB 30.4 billion).
Qian Zhimin is the mastermind behind the case of Lan Tiange Rui's illegal absorption of public deposits. According to the police report at the time of the crime, the case involved 43 billion yuan, involving 126000 investors from 31 provinces, cities and autonomous regions.
Wen Jian Meets Qian Zhimin
According to the interface news report, the public information about Wen Jian in China is very limited. According to the investigation reports of the Crown Prosecution Service, the London Police Office and a number of local media, she was born in an ordinary family, has a university law degree, and met her later husband Marcus Barraclough in China. In 2007, seven months pregnant, she came to Halifax, West Yorkshire, England with her husband. Due to her husband's violent tendency, the two divorced in 2010, and then she moved to Leeds, the capital of West Yorkshire, the third largest city in Britain, with her son, to live in poverty.
Wen Jian's Tour in Germany/Scotland Yard
In the summer of 2017, after sending her son back to China for education, Wen Jian went to Abiwood in southeast London to look for better job opportunities, working in a Chinese restaurant during the day and sleeping in a dark basement at night. Almost at the same time, after the Chinese public security department launched an investigation into the case of Tianjin Lantian Gerui's illegal absorption of public deposits, the principal criminal Qian Zhimin quickly left the country and entered the United Kingdom in September 2017 with a forged passport (alias "Yadi Zhang") from Saint Kitts and Nevis, a member of the Commonwealth.
Qian Zhimin enters the UK with a forged passport
Qian Zhimin carries a black Lenovo laptop with an encrypted wallet, which contains Bitcoin transferred out through his subordinate's fire currency account in advance.
After fleeing to London via Laos, Qian Zhimin successively converted his Bitcoin into sterling and jewelry. She was once in a car accident in China, and had difficulty breathing and walking. In addition, she was not fluent in language, so she urgently needed a local Chinese assistant. Wen Jian, who was under financial pressure, found the job offer of 4000 pounds a month in the Chinese WeChat group, ushering in a life reversal.
She first moved into a luxury house in Hampstead, a wealthy area in north London, with the employer "engaged in jewelry and real estate business". There is a rich cultural atmosphere here. They paid the monthly rent of 17300 pounds for half a year at a time. Wen Jian recalled that the compatriot, who is 4 years older than himself, spends about 20 hours in bed every day, playing games, shopping and engaging in bitcoin trading through his laptop.
Wen Jian's most important job is to exchange Qian Zhimin's Bitcoin for cash, and then make mass consumption, including purchasing Mercedes Benz cars and luxury homes, becoming a member of Harold, a luxury department store, and even taking her around Europe. In addition, Wen Jian also sent her son, who was studying in China, to London, where he was arranged to enter the noble school Hesfit. The tuition here is 6000 pounds per semester, which is also borne by Qian Zhimin.
During this period, the UK Financial Supervisory Authority began to crack down on the crime of money laundering through encrypted assets. In March 2018, the British government set up a special working group to conduct research on encryption assets. In the same year, Qian Zhimin and Wen Jian tried to buy a Hampstead mansion worth 23.5 million pounds with Bitcoin directly because they failed to convert Bitcoin into pounds in time. In the end, because of the unknown source of funds, the two failed to buy the house, which attracted the attention of the police.
Source of luxury houses Qian Zhimin and Wen Jian tried to buy with Bitcoin: London Police Office
During the trial, Wen Jian admitted that she participated in the processing of some cryptocurrencies, but did not know that it was the proceeds of crime. Mark Harrie, her defense lawyer, said that Wen Jian, who was born at the bottom of the class and was also a victim, was cheated and used by Qian Zhimin. Prosecutor Gillian Jones responded that the defendant's motive for committing the crime was to obtain illegal economic benefits, rather than being coerced, intimidated or exploited.
In addition, on April 24, Qian Zhimin, who was arrested after hiding for many years, appeared in Westminster District Court for the first time and was accused of acquiring, using or holding criminal property across the UK from October 1, 2017 to April 23, 2024, and carrying two counts of illegal possession of cryptocurrency, but she said she would not plead guilty. At present, the case has been sent to the Nanhuake Criminal Court.
Qian Zhimin
According to the public judgment documents, on March 31, 2014, Qian Zhimin registered and established Lantian Gerui in Tianjin. Lantian Gerui has seven major regions, namely Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Northeast, East China, South China, Central China, Northwest and Southwest, to manage the sales of national financial products. From April 2014 to August 2017, Lantian Gerui launched ten financial products, and illegally absorbed public deposits with 1~3 times of return on investment as bait.
According to China News Weekly, almost no "investors" know the details of Qian Zhimin, and only the public publicity information and unconfirmed legends of Lan Tiange Rui are passed on word of mouth.
The person wearing a mask on the right is Qian Zhimin. Source: Provided by the interviewee/China Newsweek
Lantian Gree publicized that "Huahua" (Qian Zhimin's name in Lantian Gree) graduated from Tsinghua University with double doctorates, studied in the United States and understood finance. Han Xinghai (a pseudonym), an "investor" from Shenyang, heard that "Huahua" brought back a lot of technology from the United States. He once asked "Huahua" at the promotion meeting why she was not allowed to take photos. "She said that it was because she brought American technology back. If it was disclosed, the United States would impose sanctions on her".
Zhang Li (not her real name) from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, participated in a promotion meeting organized by Blue Sky Group with thousands of people in Beijing in 2016 and met Qian Zhimin. At that time, Qian Zhimin was wearing a pink and white veil and sitting in a wheelchair. On the corridor leading to the conference platform, people were holding up Qian Zhimin with a wheelchair. People shouted slogans while holding up Qian Zhimin. One of the slogans was "three generations of wealth" - it came from the slogan of Blue Sky Gerui: "You give Gerui three years, and Gerui gives you three generations of wealth."
"You give Gerui three years, and Gerui gives you three generations of wealth", the Lantian Gerui product promotion will be marked with such slogans: respondents provide pictures
In late April 2024, British media reported that after Qian Zhimin was arrested in Britain, the date of birth she provided to the court as Yadi Zhang was November 10, 1990. However, according to China News Weekly, the date may not be true from the sources who do not want to be named. The person said that Qian Zhimin was born in Rugao, Jiangsu Province in September 1978, with a junior college degree, married and later divorced.
China News Weekly learned that in 2013, Qian Zhimin was involved in a pyramid selling case in Hefei, Anhui Province. At that time, Qian Zhimin assumed the pseudonym of "Li Xia". The case involved many people and huge funds. After the case, someone was arrested and sentenced, while as a trader, Qian Zhimin was at large. This may explain why Qian Zhimin kept his mysterious image deliberately and did not want to show it openly during the later trading of Blue Sky Gerui.
On April 21, 2017, the public security organ filed a case for investigation because it was found that Lantian Gerui was suspected of illegally absorbing public deposits. In June 2019, Hedong Branch of Tianjin Public Security Bureau issued a notice that the public security authorities had captured 50 suspects including Ren Jiangtao, the legal representative of Lantian Gerui, and 28 of them had been transferred for review and prosecution.
In February 2021, Tianjin Hedong District People's Court publicly heard the case of Ren Jiangtao, the legal representative of Lantian Gerui. Ren was also tried with his assistant Huang Yafang, who was Ren's girlfriend. The court found that from June 2014 to August 2017, he served as the legal representative of Lantian Gerui and participated in the illegal absorption of public deposits of more than 40.2 billion yuan; Huang participated in the illegal absorption of public deposits of more than 17.6 billion yuan. In September 2021, the court sentenced Ren to 10 years' imprisonment with a fine of 500000 yuan, and Huang to 5 years' imprisonment with a fine of 250000 yuan.
Ren Jiangtao confessed that he knew Qian Zhimin through playing online games. Because he completely obeyed Qian Zhimin's command in the game, Qian Zhimin asked him to act as the legal representative of Blue Sky Gerui, but in fact, it was only in name. The specific work was still arranged by Qian Zhimin. At that time, Qian Zhimin gave him 1 million yuan and another 30000 yuan per month according to the verbal agreement after three years of work. However, he actually received only 12000 to 15000 yuan per month. After receiving more than a year, he stopped, and did not receive the 1 million yuan previously agreed.
Chinese investors recover losses
According to the special audit, from August 2014 to July 2017, Lantian Gerui absorbed a total of more than 40.2 billion yuan, which was controlled and controlled by Qian Zhimin. From April 2014 to August 2017, Lantian Gerui refunded more than 34.1 billion yuan to 128409 people, including more than 95.68 million yuan for jewelry purchase, more than 91.89 million yuan for real estate purchase, more than 210 million yuan for daily operating expenses, and more than 120 million yuan for life cycle customer service center projects. In addition, it is worth noting that more than 1.14 billion yuan was used to purchase Bitcoin.
According to the news report on the interface, in December 2022, the Blue Sky Gerui case started the reimbursement procedure, and the public security organs in many places across the country issued the online registration announcement of the information of the fund-raising participants in the case. Some investors reported to the interface news that a considerable number of investors are teachers, military personnel, police and other public officials from all over the country. After the "thunderstorm", some public officials "dare not report the case for various reasons".
Several investors who have received refunds disclosed to the interface news that the liquidation team returned 8% of the defrauded funds in May 2023; In October of the same year, it returned 5%. It is reported that in the 43 billion yuan illegal fund raising case of Lantian Gerui, the funds recovered by the police are 2.8 billion yuan, accounting for only 6.5% of the total funds raised.
The 61000 Bitcoins seized by the British police brought hope to investors again. However, according to the Financial Times, the Crown Prosecution Office has filed a civil recovery procedure with the High Court for these seized assets. If no other person claims rights to the criminal assets, half of them will be owned by the British police and half by the British Home Office.
Huang Feng, a professor at the G20 Research Center for Anti corruption, Fugitive and Stolen Money Recovery at Beijing Normal University, said earlier that "before the British courts start hearing civil recovery applications, property victims should find lawyers who are qualified and capable of handling transnational cases as soon as possible to fight civil cases in the UK and put forward their property rights claims to the British courts." He said that according to the provisions of British law, If the property victim raises a relevant claim, the British court will suspend the hearing of the civil recovery application filed by the British law enforcement agency to determine the ownership of the relevant property.
edit | He Xiaotao and Du Hengfeng
Proofread| Segmental refining
Comprehensive interface news of daily economic news, China News Weekly, Associated Press of Finance and Economics, Sanlian Life Weekly
