Between luxury jewellery, a London mansion and household staff, he lives in style after defrauding 128,000 people in China: Zhimin Qian, a 47-year-old Chinese woman who owns billions in bitcoin, is waiting to hear her verdict on the UK side of the mega case.
This woman with an elusive profile, driven by dreams of grandeur and calling herself the “goddess of wealth”, is accused of coordinating a Ponzi-type scam between 2014 and 2017 (which rewarded investors using funds from new arrivals) through her investment company Lantian Green located in Tianjin, in northeast China. In this case, more than 61,000 bitcoins, or more than $6 billion at current prices, were confiscated.
Fraud committed in China, Zhimin Qian was only tried in the UK for possession and transfer of criminal property, namely bitcoin, and he pleaded guilty. Currently in custody, he faces up to 14 years in prison. Stocky in an Asian blouse with a floral print, a gray bun, she remained unmoved by a statement of facts on Monday, the first of her two-day sentencing hearing before Southwark Crown Court in London.
“Marriages and families have been destroyed and friendships destroyed,” launched a prosecutor’s representative, who explained in detail the fraud carried out by word of mouth, social networks, and the events in which Zhimin Qian and his army of representatives recruited their prey. “Investors were misled by this scheme” among them “The goal is to enrich Mrs. Qian”he continued.
In front of Chinese authorities, the defendant eventually converted most of his victims’ money into bitcoin, before leaving the country in 2017 with fake documents. During her flight, she traveled across Europe, between a night at the Ritz-Carlton in Berlin and jewelry shopping at Van Cleef & Arpels in Zurich, then reached England.
Across the Channel, an accomplice, Jian Wen, tried to launder funds by buying real estate, the BBC reported. Qian then lived in a large house in London rented for 17,000 pounds a month, with full-time employees. He tried, unsuccessfully, to buy the building, valued at 23 million pounds. His accomplice will be arrested in 2020, and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison in 2024.
From his residence, Qian also kept a diary in which he wrote of his intentions to become king of “Liberland”, a self-proclaimed microstate born from the imagination of several thousand libertarians, between Croatia and Serbia. Thanks to police surveillance of his co-defendant – a 47-year-old Malaysian, Seng Hok Ling, who pleaded guilty to his role in money laundering – he was eventually arrested in York in 2024. Cash, gold and cryptocurrencies worth a total of £11 million were seized.
The victims “often people who are not very financially savvy” as “farmer, butcher, taxi driver or housewife”, told AFP Jackson Ng, who is representing the victim in the civil aspect of the case, along with the criminal trial. From Chinese media Live week, one victim said he was convinced, after his encounter with a business manager who spoke out “charming”, “sincere” And “self-confident”, to invest more than 200,000 yuan. The lawyer also mentioned the case of a couple of office workers in their forties from Shanxi (north) who lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in savings for their retirement and their daughter – who cut off all contact – “after attending a public presentation in 2016.”
By pleading guilty, Zhimin Qian hoped to “reassure” the victims, his lawyer explained in September, stressing that the “sharp increase in the value of cryptocurrencies” would make it possible to “cover their losses”. In this case, more than 1,300 victims came forward, some of whom “suffered enormous personal losses, affecting their lives, their marriages, destroying their families and businesses.”noted in October William Glover, another victim representative.
Another debate that has revived this issue concerns the British government’s reimbursement system. The High Court in London must decide whether victims will be reimbursed for the investments they made, or whether they should receive compensation equivalent to the value gained by bitcoin. Bitcoin, which was worth around $3,600 at the end of 2018 and hit $125,000 in early October, is currently trading around $100,000.
