Prosecutors said Wen Jian helped hide the source of funds allegedly stolen from about 130,000 Chinese investors. A woman accused of converting bitcoin into cash and property to help hide the proceeds of a £5 billion ($6.3 billion) scam was found guilty this week of money laundering after a trial in a London court. Prosecutors said Wen Jian helped conceal the source of funds allegedly stolen from about 130,000 Chinese investors in fraudulent wealth schemes between 2014 and 2017.
She was not alleged to have been involved in the underlying fraud, which prosecutors said was masterminded by a woman Wen knew as Zhang Yadi, whose real name was Qian Zhimin. As part of their investigation, British police seized wallets containing more than 61,000 bitcoins, making it one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures by law enforcement worldwide. Prosecutors said during Wen’s trial that the 61,000 bitcoins were worth around £1.4bn when police gained access to them in 2021. They are now worth more than £3bn.
Wen, 42, denied three charges of money laundering, and provided evidence that Zhang – who fled Britain in 2020 and whose whereabouts are unknown – told her she was independently wealthy and that Wen had no knowledge of criminality. Jurors found her guilty of one count on Monday after a trial at Southwark Crown Court. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two other counts. Prosecutor Max Baines said on Wednesday that the Crown Prosecution Service was not seeking to retry Wynn on those two charges, meaning a guilty verdict could be announced.
Wynn is scheduled to be sentenced next month on the money laundering charge for which she was convicted. “Criminal Villain” Prosecutor Gillian Jones said at the beginning of the trial that Zhang arrived in Britain on a false passport from St. Kitts and Nevis in 2017, shortly after Chinese authorities began investigating the fraud. Jones said Zhang needed to convert the stolen funds, which had been converted into Bitcoin to get out of China, into cash and then used Wen as her “front person.”
Prosecutors said Wen should have known that Zhang’s money was obtained illegally, including because of her aversion to traveling to countries that have an extradition treaty with China. However, Wayne said she was simply trying to provide a better life for her son. Her lawyer, Mark Harries, described Zhang as a “super criminal expert” who constantly lied to Wen about the source of the money. Harris said Zhang “used her and abandoned her because she was dependable and disposable” when she disappeared in 2020.