A Chinese woman known as the “Bitcoin Queen” has been sentenced in London to 11 years and eight months in prison for laundering Bitcoin linked to a massive £5.5 billion ($7.3 billion) cryptocurrency investment scam.
The woman, 47-year-old Zhimin Qian — also known as Yadi Zhang — was identified as the mastermind behind a large-scale fraud operation that tricked over 128,000 investors in China between 2014 and 2017. The scam promised unrealistic returns of up to 300% and raised more than 40 billion yuan before collapsing.
According to the Metropolitan Police, Qian converted part of the stolen funds into cash, jewelry, and Bitcoin, then fled to the UK using a false identity. British authorities later uncovered her activities following a 2018 tip about attempts to liquidate criminal assets in London. Investigators seized 61,000 Bitcoin — worth hundreds of millions of pounds at the time and now valued at around £5.5 billion — marking the largest cryptocurrency seizure in British history.
Another member of the fraud network, 47-year-old Seng Hok Ling from Derbyshire, was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison for helping transfer criminal cryptocurrency under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Qian’s associate, Jian Wen, was previously sentenced to six years and eight months in May 2024 for her role in laundering the stolen crypto through luxury property purchases.
Police also confiscated assets worth £11 million ($14.4 million), including cryptocurrency wallets, encrypted devices, cash, and gold. “This is one of the largest and most complex economic crime investigations we have ever undertaken,” said Will Lyne, head of the Met’s Economic and Cybercrime Command.
He added that while organized crime groups increasingly use cryptocurrency to hide illegal profits, digital transactions always leave a trace. Through collaboration with global partners, authorities were able to follow the blockchain trail and bring the offenders to justice.
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