UK authorities have seized 61,000 Bitcoin (BTC), worth an estimated £1.4 billion, in connection with an investment scam operating in China, the Financial Times reported on January 31.
The above information was revealed at the trial of Jian Wen, 42, who is accused of laundering Bitcoin for his former boss Qian, now identified as Yadi Zhang with a passport in the name of St. Kitts and Nevis, moved to the UK in 2017. However, prosecutors said Zhang had fled and was now wanted.
Specifically, the mastermind behind the scam was Yadi Zhang, who converted part of the profits from a £5 billion investment scam that took place in China from 2014 to 2017 to Bitcoin, for convenience. in cross-border money transfers from the country.
According to Financial Times, the illegal activities were discovered in 2018, when Zhang asked Wen for help in laundering money by seeking to buy a villa worth 23.5 million pounds in London. Police later seized four separate devices containing more than 61,000 Bitcoins from a safe, and several assets at the villa where Wen and the owner, Yadi Zhang, lived.
Although not directly involved in the original fraud, Wen is now facing court on three counts of money laundering. Prosecutors allege she helped Zhang convert Bitcoin into cash, jewelry and other luxury items, knowing it was proceeds from a crime.
Notably, both failed in their attempt to buy an 8-bedroom villa worth £12.5 million due to the failure to explain the origin of the Bitcoin number. In October that year, police froze the money in Wen's customer account at Mishcon.
However, Wen is currently pleading not guilty and asserting that she was just Zhang's maid.
The trial is still ongoing.
The UK's enforcement action shows a growing global trend of regulatory tightening in cracking down on illegal cryptocurrency activity. On January 26, British and American authorities collaborated to bust a drug trafficking business, seizing $150 million worth of cash and cryptocurrency.
The US and Germany have also taken similar actions. German police on January 30 confiscated $2.3 billion worth of illegal cryptocurrency from a piracy website, while the US government on January 25 also seized more than 50,000 Bitcoins, worth about 3.6 billion USD, related to the Silk Road darknet market.
