Chinese fraudster jailed for scam that led to £5.5bn bitcoin seizure

A Chinese fraudster has been jailed after masterminding a scam that led police to make the UK's largest ever cryptocurrency seizure, taking bitcoin worth more than £5.5bn.

- Aisha Down

Zhimin Qian, 47, defrauded more than 128,000 victims in China through a Ponzi scheme before fleeing to the UK as a fugitive.

She had stored the illegally obtained funds in bitcoin and spent years evading police by sightseeing across Europe and living a life of luxury, Southwark crown court heard.

Zhimin Qian narrowly escaped the police days after they raided her six-bedroom house in London. Then, in February 2024, detectives noticed a long-dormant bitcoin wallet flicker to life, and a manhunt began.

For over a month, police tracked the mastermind of one of the UK's largest money-laundering cases - from a lonely bungalow on the shores of Loch Tay to a red-tiled house outside Glasgow, and finally to a quiet Airbnb in suburban York, where she was arrested in late April alongside four Malaysian nationals working illegally as her domestic staff.