Chinese Bitcoin queen sentenced to 11 years in prison
London court finds Qian Zhimin guilty of £5 billion fraud
A woman, accused by police of buying cryptocurrencies worth billions of pounds using funds stolen from thousands of Chinese pensioners, was sentenced to 11 years and eight months for money laundering.
Passing sentence on Tuesday at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Sally-Ann Hales accused Qian Zhimin of being 'the mastermind of this crime from start to finish... her motive was pure greed'.
The Queen of Cryptocurrencies
After fleeing China, Qian had moved into a villa in Hampstead, north London. The London Met Police raided it a year later, carrying out one of the largest seizures of cryptocurrency in the world.
Over 100,000 Chinese invested their money in his company, which claimed to develop high-tech healthcare products and mine cryptocurrencies. In reality, according to the police, it misappropriated the funds.
Hopes for defrauded savers
Investors have told theBBC that they hope to get at least some of their money back from the UK authorities. Anything that is not claimed is normally returned to the UK government, leading some to speculate that the Treasury might benefit.
