China’s Yadi Zhang pleads guilty to a £5 billion crypto fraud in London

A woman from China Yadi Zhang, a crypto laundering mastermind has pleaded guilty in a London court for her role in what is believed to be the world’s largest cryptocurrency seizure, currently worth more than £5 billion.

The 45-year-old Zhang, also known as Zhimin Qian reportedly masterminded the crime in China between 2014 and 2017 that left 128,000 people out of pocket. She was arrested last year in April after spending years on the run.

Zhang had an accomplice also from China, in crypto laundering

According to the Guardian, Zhang kept the proceeds in bitcoin, although UK made a breakthrough in the case after raiding a Hampstead mansion in 2018 where they seized devices holding 61,000 bitcoins valued at £1.4 billion at the time and has appreciated in value to over £5 billion at the prevailing prices.

The fortune has reportedly been at the center of an intense battle between the UK government and Chinese investors over who gets to keep it, according to a Sky News article.

This was believed to be the largest single cryptocurrency seizure in the world, as per the Metropolitan police. The woman pleaded guilty on Monday at a Southwark crown court to acquiring crypto that was criminal property and possessing it between October 2017 and April 2024.

Zhang had reportedly fled China using a fake St Kitts and Nevis passport in 2017 and entered the UK. A year later, she attempted money laundering by purchasing properties with the assistance of 43-year-old Jian Wen, a Chinese takeaway worker.

According to the Guardian, Wen was incarcerated for six years and eight months for her role in the scam in May last year.

Sentencing for Zhang, who appeared in court aided by a Mandarin interpreter will be at a later date.

Her accomplice, Wen, arrived in the UK in 2007 and lived a modest life in Leeds between 2011 and 2017 before she started working at a Chinese take-away in south-east London in September of 2017.

However, her life took a sudden change as she laundered proceeds of the fraud, driving around in a Mercedes. She also flew her son over from China 18 months later to attend a private school.

Zhang reportedly fled after police raided the Hampstead mansion, also known as the Manor House, where they seized a safety deposit box that contained digital wallets that had huge amounts in bitcoin.

But her accomplice – Wen maintained she had no idea the bitcoin came from proceeds of crime further claiming that Zhang had tricked her, adding that she had helped Zhang run a jeweller business with branches in China, Malaysia, and Singapore.

The case is expected to bring closure to the victims

A judge ordered Wen in January this year to pay back over 3 million pounds within three months or serve jail term for another seven years.

Head of Met’s economic cybercrime command Will Lyne commended the team for the effort they put towards solving the case.

“Through a meticulous investigation and unprecedented cooperation with Chinese law enforcement, we were able to obtain compelling evidence of the criminal origins of the cryptoassets Qian attempted to launder in the UK … My thoughts are with the thousands of victims defrauded in this scheme,” added Lyne.

Zhang’s solicitor, Roger Sahota of Berkeley Square Solicitors, said this was likely to bring closure to the many victims that were defrauded.

“By pleading guilty today, Ms Zhang hopes to bring some comfort to investors who have waited since 2017 for compensation, and to reassure them that the significant rise in cryptocurrency values means there are more than sufficient funds available to repay their losses,” said Sahota.

This also come on the backdrop of rising crypto scams across the world. Recently EU member states stopped a crypto scam that resulted in heavy losses for victims in about two dozen countries.

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