Sawt Falasteen - Chinese 'goddess of wealth' faces jail after huge UK crypto seizure

Nicknamed the "goddess of wealth", Zhimin Qian, 47, is accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme which defrauded around 128,000 people in China between 2014 and 2017, raising billions of dollars, much of which was converted to Bitcoin.

Qian was arrested after UK authorities seized 61,000 Bitcoins worth over $6 billion at current rates, believed to be a record in crytocurrency-related crime.

The Chinese national, who pleaded guilty to acquiring and possessing criminal property in September, is to be sentenced on Tuesday and faces up to 14 years in prison.

A Malaysian accomplice, Seng Hok Ling, also 47, admitted to money laundering at the same court and was also to be sentenced Tuesday.

However, his case may be adjourned due to a potential misunderstanding over his previous guilty plea, the court was told Monday.

Dressed in a blouse with floral patterns and her graying hair in a bun, Qian remained impassive as London's Southwark Crown Court started the sentencing hearings in her case.

- On the run -

Following scrutiny from Chinese authorities, Qian -- also known as Yadi Zhang -- fled her home country in 2017 using false documents to enter Britain. The court heard that she evaded UK authorities for nearly six years.

She travelled across Europe, staying in fancy hotels and buying expensive jewellery including two watches worth nearly £120,000 ($160,000), the court heard.

With the help of an accomplice called Jian Wen, she rented a lavish London property for around £17,000 a month and claimed to run a successful jewellery business.

Qian first drew the attention of British authorities in 2018 when she attempted to buy a London property and suspicions were raised over her Bitcoin.

Officers raided the rented London home, where they found laptops containing a Bitcoin fortune, but did not immediately grasp the scale of the fraud.

Documents later revealed Qian's ambitions included a plan to become the monarch of "Liberland", a self-declared micronation between Croatia and Serbia.

But police surveillance of Qian's co-defendant Ling led to her arrest in the northern English city of York in April 2024. Wen was last year jailed for six years and eight months over her role in the scheme.

- 'Exploited ' -

Lawyer William Glover, who has represented victims in a civil legal action, told AFP it was "possibly the largest legal case of its kind in terms of value involving an individual and not a corporate".

Some of his clients had suffered enormous personal losses that had affected their lives, marriages and families, he said.

According to Jackson Ng, who is representing other investors, the defendant organised public events while claiming to have government support.

People who were not seasoned investors and were not "going to check everything" were duped, he said.

"Victims are often at times might not be financially sophisticated," he said.

"These could be your farmers, butchers, taxis drivers, housewives who aren’t going to check everything.”

The promised return on their investment stopped being paid out in 2017.

Fuelled by growing interest, Bitcoin, which was trading at around $3,600 at the end of 2018, is currently hovering around $100,000.

Details of a compensation scheme proposed by British authorities are still being thrashed out in London's High Court in civil proceedings.

Around 1,300 alleged victims have come forward, according to sources close to the case.

B.AbuZeid--SF-PST