A Chinese woman residing in London has been accused of laundering $6.3 billion in bitcoin, allegedly obtained by her acquaintance through investment fraud. This was reported by Law360.
According to British prosecutors, 42-year-old Jian Wen converted cryptocurrency into cash, real estate, jewelry, and other luxury items.
The transactions were conducted for Zhimin Qian, who allegedly defrauded 128,000 investors in China from 2014 to 2017, then converted the funds into bitcoin and fled to London under the alias Yadi Zhang.
Wen, in turn, moved to the UK in 2007 and worked in Chinese takeaway restaurants, living in “relatively modest accommodation” before meeting Zhang. In 2017, they rented a six-bedroom mansion in North London together. Wen became a British citizen in 2018. Zhang later fled the country and remains at large.
Wen does not dispute conducting bitcoin transactions for her acquaintance in exchange for a fee, but denies any connection to the fraud. She describes herself as Zhang’s “guardian” and claims Zhang was a wealthy businesswoman who made her fortune in the jewelry business, real estate, and legal mining.
The jury will determine whether Wen knew the bitcoins she converted were of criminal origin.
The trial is expected to continue until March.
Earlier, ForkLog reported that an Indian citizen pleaded guilty in a US court to drug distribution and money laundering. The amount of cryptocurrency confiscated from him was a record $150 million for the DEA.