Chinese Woman Jailed in UK for £5bn Bitcoin Fraud Scheme

A United Kingdom court has sentenced a Chinese national, Zhimin Qian, to 11 years and eight months in prison for masterminding one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency frauds, involving over £5 billion in illicit Bitcoin transactions.

The 47-year-old, popularly known as the “goddess of wealth,” was found guilty of orchestrating a massive Ponzi-style investment scam that defrauded more than 120,000 people in China between 2014 and 2017. Investigators revealed that the operation generated billions of dollars, much of which was later converted into Bitcoin.

Qian fled China in 2017 following increased scrutiny from authorities and settled in the UK under a false identity. After years of evading capture, she was arrested in York in 2024. British detectives subsequently seized more than 61,000 Bitcoin linked to her network, a haul valued at over £5 billion marking the largest crypto-related seizure in European history.

A Malaysian associate, Seng Hok Ling, was also sentenced to four years and 11 months after admitting to his role in transferring criminal proceeds. Another accomplice, Jian Wen, had earlier been jailed for six years for assisting Qian in laundering funds through luxury purchases and property rentals.

Court records revealed that Qian lived a life of extreme luxury while on the run, residing in high-end hotels across Europe and purchasing watches worth over £100,000. She also rented a London property for £17,000 a month under the guise of operating a jewellery business.

Authorities are currently pursuing civil proceedings to determine how the recovered cryptocurrency will be distributed among victims, with more than 1,300 claimants already identified.

Chinese and British law enforcement agencies are cooperating on efforts to recover additional assets linked to the scheme. Qian’s conviction underscores growing international coordination to tackle large-scale financial crimes conducted through digital currencies.