61,000 Bitcoins case: 130,000 people defrauded, $6.3 billion involved

Living in a luxury house with a monthly rent of up to 155,000 yuan, she either travels around in luxury cars every day, or spends hundreds of thousands of dollars in high-end shopping malls, with jewelry everywhere, and even buys houses that start from several villas...

From the description alone, it is hard to imagine that this is the life of an ordinary British deliveryman, but all this has indeed happened to the Chinese woman Wen Jian. Without thinking too much, you know that there must be something wrong when things are abnormal, so the police naturally targeted her.

On March 18, the British court found 42-year-old Wen Jian guilty of participating in money laundering and sentenced her on May 10. During the investigation, the police seized more than 61,000 bitcoins, currently worth about 3.4 billion pounds, the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized. The total amount involved in the case reached a shocking 6.3 billion US dollars, making the case the world's largest money laundering case.

Similar to all the stories of getting rich overnight but then breaking their wings in mid-air, Wen Jian also met what she called a "noble person" in her life. If it weren't for the investigation by the British police, Wen Jian might have continued to live in the dream of getting rich overnight and gratitude to her benefactor for the rest of her life, but unfortunately, in the end, she was imprisoned, and the noble person was gone. Little did they know that this farce of "the overbearing president fell in love with me" was actually related to a major case in my country seven years ago - the 43 billion yuan illegal fundraising case of Lantian Ge Rui.

This case within a case involving 61,000 bitcoins has become even more confusing.

Case: One day, the delivery man met a "noble person" and suddenly became rich

From her life experience, Wen Jian was no different from ordinary people, and even lived a very poor life for a time. Born in 1982, Wen Jian grew up in a working-class family in China. She met her husband Marcus Barraclough later. In 2007, Wen Jian became pregnant and came to the UK on a spouse visa.

Photo of Wen Jian, source: public on the Internet

But the family of three soon fell apart. Soon after her son was born, Wen Jian divorced her husband and became a single mother, living a tight life. Wen Jian did not give up on herself. Even though life was difficult, she obtained a bachelor's degree in law and economics in Leeds. In 2017, Wen Jian moved to London. In order to support her family, she lived in the basement of a Chinese takeaway restaurant in Abbeywood, southeast London, and worked as a deliveryman for the restaurant, earning 5,979 pounds (about 54,000 yuan) a year, which was a drop in the bucket for a single mother in the UK. In order to ease the financial pressure, Wen Jian worked odd jobs everywhere and took on multiple jobs. Perhaps because of her relatively high level of knowledge, she also came into contact with some temporary work needs of cryptocurrencies during this period.

The beginning of changing her destiny was a recruitment. Wen Jian accidentally saw a recruitment information on WeChat. A woman who claimed to be engaged in international trade in diamonds and antiques wanted to find a "housekeeper" with a very generous salary. Without hesitation, Wen Jian contacted the mysterious recruiter.

And this contact also made Wen Jian's future "noble man" in life-Qian Zhimin (alias Zhang Yadi) officially surfaced.

At the five-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, the two had a pleasant conversation, and Qian Zhimin soon hired Wen Jian as her full-time caregiver and housekeeper, with a monthly salary of 30,000 yuan, including a million-dollar bonus. Perhaps to show his generosity and trust, Qian Zhimin paid Wen Jian 40,000 pounds on the day of the meeting. In this way, Wen Jian moved from the basement to a luxury house in Hampstead with a monthly rent of more than 150,000 yuan, and began her counterattack life.

Her job is very simple. One is to open a cryptocurrency account to trade and cash it out and record it; the other is to spend money for the employer.

According to Wen Jian, Qian Zhimin, who had suffered a car accident before, had difficulty walking, heavy breathing, and was very weak. He stayed in bed for more than 20 hours a day and often had nightmares. After waking up, he used his laptop to play games, shop, and sell Bitcoin.

Afterwards, the two disguised themselves as jewelry dealers, traveled around Europe under pseudonyms, exchanged the cashed-in Bitcoin for high-end jewelry, and once spent millions on watches at Van Cleef & Arpels. Various funds were continuously transferred to Qian Zhimin through Wen Jian's account in various forms, and Qian Zhimin also fulfilled his promise, and Wen Jian got the affluent life she had always dreamed of. Wen Jian's son was sent to Heathside Preparatory School next to the mansion, with tuition fees reaching 6,000 pounds per semester. Wen Jian also bought a Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan worth 25,000 pounds and became a distinguished VIP of the top luxury department store Harrods. In just three months, she bought more than 90,000 pounds (about 810,000 yuan) of brand-name clothing, jewelry and shoes at Harrods.

The luxury house in the UK where Wen Jian and Qian Zhimin live together, source: public on the Internet

In addition to jewelry and daily expenses, real estate is also a top priority for spending money. In Dubai, Wen Jian spent 500,000 pounds to buy an apartment; in Italy, she bid for a 10 million pound Venice sea view antique villa, and then Wen Jian bought a property worth 4.5 million pounds in London.

In 2018, when she tried to buy a seven-bedroom mansion with a swimming pool in Hampstead and a nearby mansion worth 12.5 million pounds (about 100 million yuan) for 23.5 million pounds (about 200 million yuan), the huge real estate consumption attracted the attention of regulators. According to current UK requirements, regulators required Wen Jian to provide proof of legality of funds to prove that there was no violation of anti-money laundering regulations, but Wen Jian obviously could not provide it, and the transaction was finally dropped, which also aroused suspicion among the police.

Case transfer: Police shattered their dream, 61,000 bitcoins surfaced

In the early morning of October 31, 2018, the police entered the homes of Wen Jian and Qian Zhimin with a search warrant, seized 69,000 pounds in cash on the spot, and obtained a laptop, tablet computer, a pink USB flash drive and private key password stored in a metal can. The next day, the police found electronic equipment in the safe again. But at that time, it was not known whether it was due to insufficient evidence, the police did not detain the two, but returned their passports six months later.

Cash seized by the police from Wen Jian's home, source: Phoenix.com

After nearly two years of investigation, in 2020, the police searched the mansion of the two again. Just one month after this search, Qian Zhimin, who smelled danger, disappeared from the UK.

In 2021, after three years of unlocking, the British police finally confirmed that there were more than 61,000 bitcoins in the electronic device, which was one of the largest numbers of bitcoins ever seized by British law enforcement agencies. According to the price at the time, this batch of bitcoins was worth up to 1.4 billion pounds (about 12.7 billion yuan), and now it is worth more than 3.4 billion pounds (about 31 billion yuan).

In May 2021, Wen Jian was formally arrested. Unexpectedly, during the interrogation, Wen Jian stated that he had no idea where the funds were from and was just following instructions. He initially claimed that the cryptocurrency was legally earned from mining, and later claimed that it was a "love gift" from Qian Zhimin, emphasizing that Qian Zhimin was just a wealthy businessman who made his fortune through jewelry business, real estate investment, and legal Bitcoin mining. In other words, she was just a scapegoat who was an innocent victim.

Against this background, when Wen Jian was first tried in 2023, 2 of the 12 charges could not be determined and 10 were found not guilty. However, since subsequent investigations revealed that he had a certain criminal intent in one of the three wallets that contained the stolen money, Wen Jian was eventually convicted of money laundering in the March trial, and was classified as a high-risk Class A criminal due to the large amount of money, and will be sentenced in May this year.

A dream turned into tears behind bars. Although it is sad, Wen Jian's story basically ends here, but Qian Zhimin's story has not yet come to the end.

Where did the tens of billions of RMB involved in the case come from? How could an ordinary middle-aged woman bring such a huge sum of money to the UK? All this is related to an old case from 7 years ago.

Case closed: 7-year old illegal fundraising case re-introduced, mysterious woman absconded again

In March 2014, Tianjin Lantian Ge Rui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 30 million yuan. Its business scope includes electronic circuit design and development, electronic product research and development, etc. The company seems to be normal, but the mainland is engaged in pyramid selling under the guise of technology, claiming to have a Bitcoin mining sideline and deceiving investors with high returns.

Specifically, the company used "high returns", "guaranteed profits without losses", "theory of three generations of wealth" and other baits to launch a number of so-called "short-term investment and financial management" products, with product terms ranging from six months to 30 months, investment starting points ranging from 6,000 to 60,000, and annualized returns of 100%-300%. From the perspective of publicity, Lantian Green has quickly established more than 30 branches across the country through a pyramid scheme that develops downlines layer by layer, and the victims are mainly elderly people.

On August 17, 2016, the Linghai Municipal Public Security Bureau organized police forces to bring more than 20 people suspected of illegal pyramid schemes in a business hotel in the city back to the bureau for investigation. Later, it was found that more than 20 people were Lantian Green employees. The police realized that the situation was not simple. During the investigation, they believed that the company's actions were suspected of illegally absorbing public deposits, and immediately detained Wu Xiaolong, the then general manager. Later, Lantian Green bribed members of the investigation team with 15 million yuan to get Wu Xiaolong released on bail, which once caused widespread heated discussion.

In 2017, Lantian Green's products exploded, and the public security officially filed a case. In 2019, 50 people at all levels of Lantian Green were arrested, including the legal representative, general manager and other persons involved in the case. It was not until December 2022 that Lantian Green began to slowly refund. It was disclosed that the case obtained illegal amounts of up to 43 billion yuan from more than 128,000 investors.

The actual operator behind this institution is Qian Zhimin (also known as "Huahua"). But throughout the case, she was almost invisible. From the perspective of the company's registrant, she had planned it long ago. From the beginning of the company's establishment, she hired Ren Jiangtao as the legal representative with a monthly salary of 26,948 yuan and a one-time bonus of 997,000 yuan. At the same time, she asked him to open a Huobi account and claimed that she would settle all legal issues.

But the fact is that as soon as Ren Jiangtao was investigated by the police, Qian Zhimin immediately transferred the Bitcoin and began her escape as a wanted criminal. Judging from the direction of her escape, Qian Zhimin was meticulous. She used the Myanmar passport she had previously purchased in the name of NAN YIN, and then impersonated Zhang Yadi to obtain another passport from St. Kitts and Nevis. In this way, she fled all the way from Myanmar to the UK and arrived in London in 2017.

Qian Zhimin's fake passport, source: public on the Internet

It is reported that Qian Zhimin recorded her escape plan in detail in her personal notebook. She first bought the private country of Liberland, and then built the largest Buddhist temple in Europe to ask religious leaders to canonize her as the reincarnated goddess and the Queen of Liberland, thereby obtaining diplomatic immunity. She cheated billions and wanted to be a goddess. The whole plan can be called quite arrogant.

Since she did not light up the English skill tree and was in poor health, she decided to find a middleman in London who could connect with her to handle the stolen money. Wen Jian, at this time, entered her field of vision. Being in a foreign country, helpless, and short of money, these characteristics mean that he is easy to control, and this may be the reason why Qian Zhimin chose Wen Jian. As expected, Wen Jian also became an accomplice inadvertently under various temptations, almost in line with Ren Jiangtao's operation.

Even in his daily interactions with Wen Jian, Qian Zhimin did not let down his guard. None of the countries they traveled to had China's extradition authority, and Qian Zhimin never appeared in photos to prevent his whereabouts from being exposed. His anti-reconnaissance awareness can be called first-class. This is not surprising. Qian Zhimin can disappear quickly every time when there are signs of something wrong. His whereabouts are still unknown. As of the latest, Qian Zhimin has been included in the Interpol Red Notice List.

Leftover from the case: Did the huge sum of money end up in the hands of others?

Looking at the whole thing, although it is infuriating that the mastermind is at large, what is more concerned is the distribution of the seized stolen money. From the source, this huge sum of 3.4 billion pounds was undoubtedly defrauded from Chinese people, but according to the current situation, it is more likely to fall into the hands of the UK.

At present, the British Royal Prosecution Service has filed a civil recovery procedure with the High Court to determine whether there are other legal rights holders. If no one claims to recover the money, the amount will be confiscated in full, half will be assigned to the British police, and the other half will be assigned to the British Home Office.

However, cross-border recovery itself is difficult, and the possibility of individual claims is very small. Even if the Chinese government, judicial organs and police are involved, the difficulty is also high. According to past rules, there are very few successful cross-border cases of snatching food from the tiger's mouth. Especially when it comes to virtual currency, there are deficiencies in the identification of ownership, value assessment and technical means. Even in China, there is no comprehensive method for handling it. Therefore, although the division of stolen money is an internationally accepted practice, even if China and the UK enter into diplomatic coordination this time, the return of domestic assets is not optimistic. According to Caixin, judging from the current progress of the Blue Sky Grey case, it is estimated that less than 5% of domestic funds can be returned.

The only turning point is to catch Qian Zhimin. In this case, when China and the UK cooperate as FATF members to recover the stolen money, China can also gain more benefits. But from an ethical point of view, regardless of the difficulty, for the UK, perhaps it would be easier to deal with Qian Zhimin if he is not caught. After all, assets as high as 31 billion can be regarded as a huge sum of money even for the country.

For the parties involved, it is ultimately a waste of time. No matter how smart they are, most of the money they have cheated will eventually go to other people. I wonder what Qian Zhimin, who is still on the run with a broken body and is likely to die a miserable death, thinks, whether he is looking for the next scapegoat, and who should the anger of the 130,000 people who were cheated be vented on.

For Wen Jian, who was thrown into prison, fate has dealt him a heavy blow, making him lose his vigilance in greed and desire. It seems that there is no need to discuss whether he is completely unaware of the source of Qian Zhimin's huge wealth or would rather not know.

But while sighing, we need to be vigilant not to become the next Wen Jian. After all, the temptation of getting rich quickly is hard to resist, but behind the sudden wealth for no reason, there may be a prison disaster paved with chains and blood.