LONDON: The mastermind of a vast Ponzi scheme in China, which conned nearly 130,000 investors, was jailed in Britain on Tuesday for over 11 years for laundering the proceeds of the fraud into cryptocurrency now worth billions of dollars.

Qian Zhimin pleaded guilty to two money laundering charges in September, after an investigation during which British police seized more than 61,000 bitcoin currently worth over $6 billion in one of the largest ever cryptocurrency seizures.

Qian wept in the dock as judge Sally-Ann Hales sentenced her to 11 years and eight months, saying: “You were the architect of this offending from its inception to its conclusion … your motive was one of pure greed.”

Prosecutors said Qian and her co-conspirators spent more than 95 million renminbi ($13.34m) on jewellery from the proceeds of the fraud.

While the criminal proceedings have finished, there remains a looming legal battle over the fate of the seized bitcoin and how the victims of the fraud are repaid, with British prosecutors mulling a compensation scheme for victims.

Qian’s lawyers say she never intended to defraud anyone and that the “astronomic rise in the value of bitcoin means it will greatly exceed the amount needed to compensate victims”.

Massive investment fraud

Qian, 47, changed her pleas on what was due to be the first day of her trial, admitting possessing and transferring criminal property. She previously claimed she was the target of a Chinese government “crackdown on successful crypto entrepreneurs”.

Prosecutors say Qian ran an investment fraud through her Lantian Gerui company between 2014 and 2017, into which around 128,000 people invested roughly 40bn renminbi ($5.62bn), about six billion of which was siphoned off. More than 80 people were convicted in China.

Qian fled China via Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Malaysia, before she flew to London on a St Kitts and Nevis passport and began trying to convert bitcoin bought with the proceeds of the fraud into cash, prosecutors said.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2025