Fraudster flees to the UK taking away billions of assets Exposed by luxury mansion purchase 29 billion yuan worth of Bitcoin seized she appears in court in London denying all money laundering charges

Bijie.com report:
There has been new progress in the largest bitcoin money laundering case in the UK involving a large number of Chinese investors.
According to The Paper, on October 21st local time, Qian Zhimin, the main suspect in the illegal absorption of public deposits case of Tianjin Lantian Ge Rui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Lantian Ge Rui), and the main suspect in the largest bitcoin money laundering case in the UK, pleaded not guilty to the charges of bitcoin money laundering in the Southwark Crown Court in London.
Qian Zhimin appearing in court in London
Denying all money laundering charges
According to Jiemian News, Qian Zhimin was charged by the UK Criminal Prosecution Service with two counts of illegal possession of cryptocurrency. Her lawyer said, “Qian Zhimin denies all criminal charges and intends to actively defend this case.” Also appearing in court that day was a co-defendant named “Senghok Ling,” who also pleaded not guilty to the charge of participating in money laundering while knowing that it was criminal property.
The trial of this case has attracted attention because Qian Zhimin was the mastermind behind the illegal absorption of public deposits case of Tianjin Lantian Ge Rui 7 years ago. She and her criminal gang were accused of converting these funds into bitcoin assets and fleeing to the UK to spend them. The 128,000 Chinese investors involved have been actively seeking compensation but have always faced multiple difficulties such as cross-border debt recovery, virtual currency ownership, and value conversion.
An investor revealed to Jiemian News that they also sent representatives to the trial and entrusted a cross-border asset dispute lawyer team to observe the trial. The entrusted lawyers have submitted a civil compensation application to the High Court in the UK on behalf of the creditors.
In response to this, the UK Crown Prosecution Service issued a notice on October 22nd specifically informing Chinese victims that the agency has initiated civil compensation proceedings this year on the assets frozen by Qian Zhimin and others on the UK side. After the proceedings progress as stipulated in Article 281 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, there will be contact between the two countries.
The Crown Prosecution Service initiated civil compensation proceedings with the High Court earlier this year, and if no other individuals or entities claim rights to the criminal assets, half of the assets will be handed over to the UK police and the other half to the UK Home Office, with the goal of facilitating the handling of criminal proceeds and preventing further crimes.
Lantian Ge Rui case occurred
Escaped to the UK with encrypted wallet
Public judgments show that on March 31, 2014, Qian Zhimin registered and established Lantian Ge Rui in Tianjin. Lantian Ge Rui manages the sales business of national financial products in seven regions: Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Northeast, East China, South China, Central China, Northwest, and Southwest. From April 2014 to August 2017, Lantian Ge Rui launched ten wealth management products, using a return on investment of 1-3 times as bait to illegally absorb public deposits.
According to China News Weekly, there is almost no information about Qian Zhimin known to “investors.” The only widely circulated information is the public propaganda of Lantian Ge Rui and unconfirmed rumors.
Lantian Ge Rui’s propaganda claims that “Hua Hua” (Qian Zhimin’s nickname in Lantian Ge Rui) graduated from Tsinghua University, holds dual doctoral degrees, studied in the United States, and understands finance. Han Xinghai (pseudonym), an “investor” from Shenyang, heard that “Hua Hua” brought back a lot of technology from the United States. He once asked “Hua Hua” why she didn’t allow photos to be taken, and she said it was because she brought back technology from the United States, and if it was revealed, the United States would sanction her.
Zhang Li (pseudonym) from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, attended a Lantian Ge Rui promotion event in Beijing in 2016, which was attended by thousands of people. She had seen Qian Zhimin at that time. Qian Zhimin was wearing a pale white veil and sitting in a wheelchair. On the aisle leading to the conference stage, she was lifted up by people along with the wheelchair. While everyone was raising Qian Zhimin, they chanted slogans, including “Three Generations of Wealth” – it came from Lantian Ge Rui’s slogan: “You give Ge Rui three years, and Ge Rui will give you three generations of wealth.”
Lantian Ge Rui promotion event with the slogan “You give Ge Rui three years, and Ge Rui will give you three generations of wealth.” Image source: Provided by interviewees
In late April 2024, British media reported that Qian Zhimin was arrested in the UK. She provided her date of birth as November 10, 1990, under the name Yadi Zhang. However, according to an anonymous source from China News Weekly, this date may not be true. The source said that Qian Zhimin was born in Rugao, Jiangsu Province, in September 1978, and has an associate degree. She has been married and divorced.
Because Lantian Ge Rui was found to be involved in illegal absorption of public deposits, the public security organs filed an investigation on April 21, 2017. In June 2019, the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau issued a notice, stating that the public security organs have arrested 50 suspects, including Ren Jiangtao, the legal representative of Lantian Ge Rui, and 28 of them have been transferred for review and prosecution.
Ren Jiangtao confessed that he met Qian Zhimin through playing online games, and because he completely obeyed Qian Zhimin’s orders in the game, Qian Zhimin asked him to be the legal representative of Lantian Ge Rui. However, in reality, he was just a figurehead, and his specific work was arranged by Qian Zhimin.
According to a special audit, from August 2014 to July 2017, Lantian Ge Rui received more than 40.2 billion yuan in funds, all of which were controlled and disposed of by Qian Zhimin. From April 2014 to August 2017, Lantian Ge Rui refunded more than 34.1 billion yuan to 128,409 people, used more than 95.68 million yuan to purchase jewelry, more than 91.89 million yuan to purchase real estate, more than 210 million yuan for daily operating expenses, and more than 120 million yuan for the Life Circle customer service center project. It is worth noting that more than 1.14 billion yuan was used to purchase bitcoin.
According to Jiemian News, in December 2022, the Lantian Ge Rui case initiated a refund procedure, and public security organs in many parts of the country issued online registration announcements for participants in the case.
After the Lantian Ge Rui case occurred, Qian Zhimin fled abroad with a forged passport from a Commonwealth country, carrying a laptop with an encrypted wallet. The wallet contained bitcoin that had been transferred out through subordinate Huobi accounts in advance.
In 2018, due to the failure to timely convert bitcoin into pounds, Qian Zhimin and her assistant attempted to use bitcoin to directly purchase a £23.5 million luxury mansion in Hampstead. In the end, because the source of funds was unclear, the two failed to purchase the house and instead attracted the attention of the police.
The investigation of the two led to the seizure of over 61,000 bitcoins by the British police, the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized in the UK. Based on the latest price of $67,047 per bitcoin on October 22nd, the total value of the bitcoins is currently $4.09 billion (approximately 2.9 billion yuan).
Editor:
|
He Xiaotao, Du Bo, Gai Yuanyuan
Proofreaders:
|
Cheng Peng
Daily Economic News compiled from Jiemian News, China News Weekly, The Paper, and other sources.