Wen Jian was found guilty by a London court on charges of Bitcoin money laundering in connection with a $6 billion Chinese investment fraud.
According to local media outlet SCMP, a British jury on March 20 found sufficient evidence linking Jian to Qian Zhimin, the apparent mastermind of a multi-year Bitcoin (BTC) fraud scheme that affected approximately 130,000 investors in China.
From 2017 to 2022, Jimin reportedly amassed billions of dollars in illicit wealth using seven offices overseeing 10 investment companies spread across Asia. According to Jian, Zhimin recruited her by impersonating her at her fast food restaurant located in East London in September 2017.
Although the convicted defendants denied wrongdoing throughout the trial, government lawyers successfully argued that Jian lived a wealthy life funded by fraudulent assets and was aware of Zhimin’s operations.
The pair reportedly laundered bitcoin to acquire assets in Dubai, Europe and the UK for at least three years. London police seized $2.2 billion in BTC during a house raid in 2018. Enforcement agents said the property belonged to Jimin and Jian.
Detective Inspector Jason Prins of the London Metropolitan Police declared that the results highlighted efforts to tackle international financial crimes aimed at exploiting cryptocurrencies for malicious purposes.
Bitcoin is ineffective against cryptocurrency crime
This incident is one of several examples of criminal elements using digital assets for nefarious purposes. However, blockchain’s transparency and open access to on-chain transactions allowed securities institutions to track the stolen wealth in these cases.
As crypto.news reported on March 12, the U.S. Department of Justice handed down a guilty verdict against Bitcoin Fog founder Roman Sterlingov.
A 33-year-old Swedish-Russian was found guilty of concealing $400 million in suspicious Bitcoin transactions through a cryptocurrency mixing service. $78 million is directly tied to illegal drug sales on the dark web.