Capital Economy, Business and Finance
Last week, a group of 2,500 investors petitioned the Chinese government to reclaim some £3 billion of bitcoin stored in a London police evidence room. To understand the background to this story, it helps to know the story of Zhimin Qian. Qian fled China in 2017 after defrauding 128,000 investors in a multi-billion pound scam. Ending up in a Hampstead mansion, she travelled and spent lavishly while laundering money through her accomplice, Jian Wen. Picking up on Wen’s million dollar purchases, police raided the mansion the two shared in 2018. However, by the time authorities realised just how much bitcoin they found, Qian had vanished and still remains on the run. Wen was convicted of money laundering last month and will be sentenced on May 10. However, silence from UK and Chinese authorities means the billions of bitcoin will remain in police hands for the foreseeable.
