Bitcoin
British-Chinese bitcoin money launderer jailed for over 6 years
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An Anglo-Chinese woman was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for laundering bitcoin derived from a £5 billion fraud in China committed by her employer, London’s Southwark Crown Court heard on Friday.
Jian Wen, 42, was convicted in March of one count of money laundering on behalf of a Chinese woman, Yadi Zhang, his former boss.
During a attack on Wen and Zhang’s Hampstead mansion In 2018, London’s Metropolitan Police seized devices containing 61,000 bitcoins, currently valued at over £3 billion.
It was one of the largest cryptocurrency purchases made by a law enforcement agency anywhere in the world. O He knew initially investigated Wen in relation to an attempt to purchase a London mansion with bitcoin.
His then boss stole the funds in a £5bn fraud in China, according to UK prosecutors. Zhang’s lawyer said she is “completely innocent.”
Wen was convicted of laundering part of the profits between 2017 and 2022, after two trials and acquittals on 10 other charges. She was not charged with involvement in the original alleged fraud.
Judge Sally-Ann Hales, KC, said: “I have no doubt that . . . you knew, rather than just suspected, that you were dealing in the proceeds of crime.”
“This was a sophisticated crime and involved significant planning,” she added.
Wen, who was accused of helping convert some of the bitcoin into cash, jewelry and other luxury items, as well as property, has pleaded not guilty and has consistently denied that she knew her employer’s funds had been stolen.
“Miss Wen was a fragile and desperate woman” who was “undoubtedly deceived and used,” Mark Harries KC, her lawyer, told the court. The court heard Wen had not seen his 16-year-old son for 26 months. She has been in custody since March 2022.
“I do not agree with your lawyer’s classification of you as a victim,” said the judge.
Wen admitted that he controlled a bitcoin wallet, but claimed that he had no knowledge of the cryptocurrency’s origins.
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Gillian Jones KC, acting on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service, said Wen’s dealings were “set against a backdrop of caution that Miss Ms. Wen was informed about the origin of bitcoin.”
Between 2017 and 2020, Wen turned to a series of intermediaries to convert the cryptocurrency into other assets, including Dubai-based real estate agent Michael James Burke, who helped her sell bitcoin through his companies in the Seychelles and Switzerland, and buying properties in Dubai.
The Met is currently working on a civil recovery process to confiscate the full amount of seized funds and is in communication with the Chinese authorities.
“The Chinese side has already engaged in international law enforcement cooperation with the United Kingdom regarding this case,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Financial Times.
He added: “The law enforcement agencies of both countries are actively advancing work related to the pursuit of fugitives and the recovery of assets.”
The cooperation comes after a group representing victims of China’s alleged £5 billion scam sent a letter last month to the Foreign Office in Beijing asking it to begin negotiations with the UK government over the recovery of bitcoins. purchased with your money.