The “Cryptoqueen of London” — How a Chinese fraudster hid £5 billion in Bitcoin

A Chinese woman, Qian Zhimin, has been sentenced in the UK to 11 years and 8 months in prison for laundering billions of pounds stolen from over 100,000 Chinese investors.

After fleeing China on a fake passport in 2017, Qian settled into a luxury Hampstead mansion in London, paying more than £17,000 a month in rent. Behind her image as a wealthy heiress, police uncovered hard drives containing tens of thousands of Bitcoins, now worth around £5 billion — one of the largest crypto seizures in British history.

Her company, Lantian Gerui (“Bluesky Greet”), lured mostly elderly investors with promises of high-tech projects and 200% returns. In reality, it was a Ponzi scheme, where new investments were used to pay earlier ones.

“She played on our trust and patriotism,” said one victim. “We were told we were helping make China number one in the world.”

Now, as Qian serves her sentence, UK authorities are determining how to handle the enormous cryptocurrency fortune. Victims hope to recover part of their losses — otherwise, the British government could inherit the Bitcoin stash.