Woman jailed for laundering bitcoin in R120 billion fraud case with 130,000 alleged victims

(André François McKenzie/Unsplash)

A woman accused of converting bitcoin into cash and goods to help hide the proceeds of a £5 billion (about R120 billion) fraud was jailed on Friday for almost seven years for money laundering. money after a trial in a London court.

Prosecutors said Wen Jian helped hide the source of money allegedly stolen from nearly 130,000 Chinese investors in fraudulent wealth management schemes between 2014 and 2017.

She was allegedly not involved in the underlying fraud, which prosecutors say was orchestrated by another woman Wen believed to be independently wealthy.

As part of their investigation, British police seized wallets containing more than 61,000 bitcoins, making it one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures by law enforcement in the world.

The 61,000 bitcoins were worth approximately £1.4 billion when police gained access in 2021, prosecutors said during Wen's trial. It is now worth more £3 billions.

Wen, 42, has denied three counts of money laundering and said she had no knowledge of bitcoin-related crime.

She was found guilty by jurors of one count in March following a trial at Southwark Crown Court. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on two other counts.

Wen was sentenced Friday to 80 months in prison for the single money laundering charge she was convicted of.

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