Cryptoqueen Behind £5bn Bitcoin Scam Jailed in London

Published: 12 November 2025. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online

A woman, identified by police as Qian Zhimin, who allegedly used funds stolen from thousands of Chinese pensioners to buy cryptocurrency now worth billions of pounds, has been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison for money laundering.

Passing sentence at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Sally-Ann Hales described Qian as “the architect of this offending from its inception to its conclusion” and said her “motive was one of pure greed.”

After fleeing China in 2017, Qian settled in a mansion in Hampstead, north London, under a false identity. The Metropolitan Police raided the property a year later, seizing one of the largest cryptocurrency hauls ever recorded globally. Investigators said more than 100,000 Chinese investors had entrusted their money to her company, which falsely claimed to develop high-tech health products and mine cryptocurrency. In reality, Qian embezzled the funds, leaving many investors financially devastated.

Victims have expressed hope that some of the funds can be recovered through UK authorities. One, identified as Mr Yu, said his marriage ended as a result of the fraud and added, “If we can gather all the evidence together, we hope the UK government, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the High Court can show compassion. Now, it’s only that haul of Bitcoin that can return us a little bit of what we lost.”

Qian, 47, arrived in the UK under a fake passport and moved into a Hampstead mansion, paying rent of over £17,000 ($22,700) per month. To finance her extravagant lifestyle, she directed her personal assistant, Wen Jian—who was later jailed for six years—to convert her cryptocurrency into cash and other assets, including property. During this time, Qian maintained a life of leisure, spending most of her days gaming, shopping online, and drafting plans for future schemes.

Her diaries revealed audacious ambitions, including plans to establish an international bank, purchase a Swedish castle, and position herself as the queen of Liberland, a self-declared microstate on the Croatian-Serbian border. Police investigations began when her assistant could not account for Qian’s wealth amid attempts to buy a large Totteridge Common property, an area known for its luxury homes.

Qian’s case represents one of the most significant cryptocurrency-related crimes in the UK and highlights the growing challenges of regulating digital assets and tracing illicit funds across international borders. Authorities continue to assess the seized cryptocurrency’s value and explore ways to return as much as possible to the victims.

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