Overview
- Southwark Crown Court handed down the sentence after Qian, 47, pleaded guilty to money‑laundering offences following a multiyear Metropolitan Police investigation.
- Police seized more than 61,000 bitcoin—currently worth about £5 billion ($6.6 billion)—in what authorities call the largest confirmed criminal‑asset seizure in Europe, with CPS‑led civil recovery ongoing.
- Prosecutors said she ran the Lantian Gerui scheme in China from 2014 to 2017, taking roughly 40 billion yuan from about 128,000 investors and siphoning billions into bitcoin.
- After fleeing China on false documents, Qian lived lavishly across Europe before her April 2024 arrest in York, where officers found devices holding cryptocurrency wallets and other assets.
- Accomplices were jailed too, including Seng Hok Ling for four years and 11 months and Jian Wen for six years and eight months, as UK and Chinese authorities coordinate on asset recovery.