Bitcoin
How a delivery worker drove a Mercedes-Benz E-Class, spent money at Harrods and enrolled her son in a £6,000-a-term prep school before her jet-set lifestyle fell apart
Jian Wen came to Britain to “enjoy the finer things in life”.
The 42-year-old drove a Mercedes-Benz E-Class, indulged in a £30,000 Harrods shopping spree and enrolled her son at the prestigious £6,000-a-term Heathside Preparatory School, close to her £5million home.
It was only when she embarked on building a global property empire, attempting to buy a £23m Hampstead mansion, a £10m Tuscan villa and apartments in Dubai that alarm bells began to ring about the single mother who barely had £5,000 to her name when she arrived in the UK to work in a Chinese takeaway.
Yesterday the Chinese immigrant who helped wash Bitcoin of a £5 billion investment fraud was jailed for more than six years.
Judge Sally-Ann Hales, KC, said Wen played a key role in a sophisticated criminal enterprise that was “generously rewarded” for her work in laundering the proceeds of a wealth management fraud in Chinawhere 128,000 investors were scammed.
Jian Wen (pictured) came to Britain to ‘enjoy the finer things in life’ Wen tried to buy a £23m mansion in Hampstead (pictured) – which raised alarm bells about the source of the funds
Police linked Wen’s accounts to a staggering £3.4 billion worth of cryptocurrency, which she was helping a fraudster launder in Britain.
A receipt for £75,000 worth of diamonds purchased in Zurich
After Wen moved to Britain in 2007, she ended up living in a Chinese restaurant in London, earning just £5,979 a year.
But life changed after she saw an advertisement on Chinese social media app WeChat to be a “butler” for a woman who claimed to run an international diamond and antiques trading business.
Just weeks after meeting the woman at a five-star hotel in Kensington, Wen moved into a six-bedroom, £5 million mansion near Hampstead Heath, rented for £17,000 a month.
The pair traveled the world, vacationing in Europe, Thailand and Dubai under various aliases, while Wen opened a series of cryptocurrency accounts by making meticulous notes of the transactions in a Wallace and Gromit notebook.
They sold Bitcoin and bought fine jewellery, spending more than £44,000 on precious stones at Christopher Walser Vintage Diamonds in Zurich, and watches worth £119,000 from Van Cleef & Arpels.
In three months, more than £90,000 was spent at Harrods on designer clothes, jewelery and shoes using a rewards card in Wen’s name.
She bought two apartments in Dubai for more than £500,000 and considered buying an 18th-century Tuscan villa for £10 million with sea views.
Wen then tried to buy a seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion for £23.5 million with a swimming pool and a nearby £12.5 million house with a cinema and gym.
Wen was living in a basement beneath a Chinese restaurant in Abbey Wood, south-east London. But within weeks, she moved into this fabulous six-bedroom house in Hampstead Heath, paying £17,000 a month in rent. In September 2017, Wen traveled across Europe, including to Germany. She denied knowing that she was involved in money laundering and insisted that she had been deceived by her boss. Stacks of cash were found by police during searches linked to Jian Wen Jian Wen made meticulous notes in a notebook owned by Wallace and Gromit showing what was bought and sold in terms of cryptography. In this she said ‘I’ll be dead if they crack the BTC code’ – BTC is a reference to Bitcoin
But the spending spree triggered anti-money laundering checks and purchases were halted after she failed to explain the origin of the Bitcoin she planned to use to pay for the properties.
Wen initially claimed the cryptocurrency had been mined, then said it was given to her as a “gift of love.”
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Scotland Yard launched a major investigation that resulted in the largest-ever cryptocurrency seizure in the UK in 2021, when more than 61,000 Bitcoins were discovered in digital wallets hidden in a safe.
The cryptocurrency was worth £1.4 billion at the time, but its value has now risen to £3.4 billion.
Wen insisted that she was deceived by her boss.
Her lawyer, Mark Harris, KC, said: ‘Ms Wen was a fragile and desperate woman whose self-esteem could not be at a very high level.
“She was a vulnerable woman. She was undoubtedly deceived and used. But Judge Hales told the defendant: ‘I have no doubt that you have come to enjoy the finer things in life.
‘The evidence showed that you were generously rewarded for your services.
‘It is stated on his behalf that his culpability falls in the medium range. I do not agree. The offense was sophisticated and involved significant planning.
Wen poses at the Lindt store in Zurich on one of her trips to Europe. She claimed it was to purchase items for a jewelry store, producing receipts for diamonds and watches. Wen also went to Norway on business. It was an incredible transformation for a woman who had been living either above or below Chinese foods for years.
“I do not agree that his involvement in the crime was due to any element of exploitation.
‘I do not agree with your lawyer’s characterization of you as a victim.’
Wen was sentenced to six years and eight months at Southwark Crown Court for participating in or being involved in a money laundering arrangement between October 2017 and January 2022.