UK authorities seize £1.4 billion in Bitcoin linked to Chinese investment fraud scheme

U.Okay. authorities seized 61,000 BTC valued at approximately £1.4 billion (or $1.78 billion) linked to an investment fraud that operated in China, the Monetary Cases reported.

The mastermind in the aid of the fraud, Zhimin Qian, converted portion of the earnings from a £5 billion investment rip-off operated in China between 2014 and 2017 into the high cryptocurrency to facilitate the seamless transfer of funds from the Asian nation.

Qian, now acknowledged as Yadi Zhang with a St. Kitts and Nevis passport, moved to the U.Okay. in 2017. Alternatively, prosecutors acknowledged she has since fled the nation and remains at mountainous.

The authorities uncovered the fraudulent actions when Zhang enlisted the aid of Jian Wen to launder the money, finally attracting consideration when making an try to aquire a £23.5 million mansion in London. This led to a police raid on their £17,000-per-month rented home, ensuing in the seizure of a big quantity of digital wallets containing the 61,000 BTC.

Even supposing not implicated in the preliminary fraud, Wen is facing trial for 3 counts of cash laundering. The prosecutors alleged that she assisted Zhang in converting the digital sources into money, jewellery, and other luxury items, apart from property, while shining it became the proceeds of crime.

Particularly, their attempts to aquire properties, at the side of a £12.5 million eight-bedroom home with a cinema and gym, with the BTC failed because they would possibly possibly not point out its source.

Wen has pleaded not responsible and contends that she is merely Zhang’s caregiver.

Meanwhile, this seizure aligns with a broader pattern of UK authorities cracking down on illegal cryptocurrency actions. On Jan. 26, the National Crime Company announced the seizure of $150 million linked to a multi-million-buck drug mission.

In a global context, the U.S. and German authorities accept as true with moreover taken identical actions not too lengthy ago. On Jan. 30, the German police announced that they confiscated a file $2.3 billion value of illegal cryptocurrency from a piracy web web page.