The largest Bitcoin money laundering case in the UK involving a large number of Chinese investors has made new progress.
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-scale Bitcoin money laundering case in the UK, appeared in the Southwark Crown Court in London and pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Bitcoin money laundering case.
Qian Zhimin appeared in court in London and denied all money laundering charges. According to Jiemian News, Qian Zhimin has been charged by the UK Criminal Prosecution Service with two counts of illegally holding cryptocurrency. Her lawyer stated, “Qian Zhimin denies all criminal charges and intends to actively defend this case.” On the same day, another co-defendant named “Senghok Ling” also appeared in court and also pleaded not guilty to the charge of participating in money laundering with knowledge of criminal property.
The trial of this case has attracted much attention because Qian Zhimin was the mastermind behind the illegal absorption of public deposits case of Tianjin Lantian Ge Rui seven years ago. She and her criminal gang were accused of converting these funds into Bitcoin assets and fleeing to the UK for consumption. The 128,000 Chinese investors involved have been actively seeking compensation, but they have always faced multiple challenges 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 team of cross-border asset dispute lawyers to attend the trial. The entrusted lawyers have already submitted a civil compensation application to the High Court of England on behalf of the creditors.
In this regard, the UK Crown Prosecution Service issued an announcement on October 22nd specifically informing Chinese victims that the agency has initiated civil compensation procedures for the assets frozen by Qian Zhimin and others in the UK earlier this year. After the progress specified in Article 281 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, contact between countries will be made.
This year, the Crown Prosecution Service launched civil compensation procedures in the High Court. If no other individuals or entities claim rights to the criminal assets, half will belong to the UK police and the other half will be transferred to the UK Home Office. The purpose is to facilitate the handling of criminal proceeds and prevent further crimes.
According to the public judgment documents, on March 31, 2014, Qian Zhimin registered and established Lantian Ge Rui in Tianjin. Lantian Ge Rui manages the sales business of financial products nationwide in seven major 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 financial products, attracting the public deposits illegally with the lure of investment returns ranging from 1 to 3 times.
According to China Newsweek, there is almost no “investor” who knows the details about Qian Zhimin. The only well-known information about her is the public propaganda information of Lantian Ge Rui and unconfirmed rumors.
The publicity of Lantian Ge Rui said that “Hua Hua” (Qian Zhimin’s nickname in Lantian Ge Rui) graduated from Tsinghua University, has a double doctorate, and studied in the United States, with a good understanding of 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 the US technology she brought back would be sanctioned if revealed.
Zhang Li (pseudonym) from Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, attended a Lantian Ge Rui promotion event in Beijing with thousands of participants in 2016 and met Qian Zhimin. At that time, Qian Zhimin was wearing a pink and white veil and sitting in a wheelchair. She was carried by people along the aisle leading to the conference stage, while the crowd raised her and shouted slogans. One of the slogans was “Three Generations of Wealth,” which came from Lantian Ge Rui’s slogan: “You give Ge Rui three years, and Ge Rui will give you three generations of wealth.”
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 Newsweek, this date may be untrue. The source said that Qian Zhimin was born in Rugao, Jiangsu in September 1978, has an associate degree, was married but later divorced.
The public security organ launched an investigation into Lantian Ge Rui on April 21, 2017, due to its suspected illegal absorption of public deposits. In June 2019, the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau issued a notice, stating that the public security organ had arrested 50 criminal suspects, including Ren Jiangtao, the legal representative of Lantian Ge Rui, and 28 of them had 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 command in the game, Qian Zhimin asked him to be the legal representative of Lantian Ge Rui. However, he was only 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 illegally absorbed over 40.2 billion yuan in funds, all of which were controlled by Qian Zhimin. From April 2014 to August 2017, Lantian Ge Rui refunded over 34.1 billion yuan to 128,409 people, used over 95.68 million yuan to purchase jewelry, over 91.89 million yuan to purchase real estate, over 210 million yuan for daily operating expenses, and over 120 million yuan for the Life Circle Customer Service Center project. It is worth noting that over 1.14 billion yuan was used to purchase Bitcoin.
According to Jiemian News, in December 2022, the Lantian Ge Rui case initiated a compensation procedure, and public security organs in various regions of the country issued online registration notices for participants in the case.
After the Lantian Ge Rui case, Qian Zhimin escaped abroad with a forged passport from a Commonwealth country and carried a laptop with an encrypted wallet, which contained Bitcoin transferred out in advance through her subordinate’s Huobi account.
In 2018, because Qian Zhimin and her assistant failed to timely convert Bitcoin into pounds, they attempted to directly purchase a £23.5 million Hampstead mansion with Bitcoin. In the end, due to the unclear origin of the funds, they failed to buy the house and instead attracted the attention of the police.
During the investigation of the two, the British police seized over 61,000 Bitcoins, the largest amount of cryptocurrency ever seized in the UK. Based on the latest price of $67,047 per Bitcoin on October 22nd, the current total value of the aforementioned Bitcoins is $4.09 billion (approximately RMB 29 billion).
Editor: He Xiaotao, Du Bo, Gai Yuanyuan
Proofreader: Cheng Peng
Compiled from Jiemian News, China Newsweek, The Paper, and other sources.
