Radhika Parashar
- The court hearing is scheduled for September 29
- Chinese national Zhimin Qian will be going to trial
- This case is being touted among the largest ever crypto scam incidents
Chinese national Zhimin Qian is headed to a trial in the U.K. over a massive scam involving $7 billion in Bitcoin. The hearing of this case is reportedly scheduled to start on September 29 and is expected to set a benchmark on how U.K. intends to handle crypto scam cases.
Qian allegedly organized a crypto ponzi scheme in China between 2014 and 2017 — that duped over 130,000 investors. During this period, Qian created a firm called the Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology Company.
As part her scheme, Qian offered products that could have generated yields within the range of 100 percent and 300 percent. However, when China imposed a blanket ban on crypto activities in 2021, Qian abandoned operations and reportedly fled to the U.K.
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She found herself under the radar of the U.K. law enforcement authorities after an accomplice of hers, Jian Wen, was reportedly found guilty of money laundering in March 2024. While investigating Wen, the U.K. authorities had confiscated 61,000 BTC tokens. At present, BTC is trading at $114,400 — which brings the value of 61,000 BTC tokens to $6.8 billion.
This case is being touted among the largest ever crypto scam incidents to have been busted in recent years.
However, given that Qian committed the scam in China and was later detected by authorities in the U.K., the legal complications of the case have been complex.
The BTC tokens seized during this investigation is held by the U.K. government as of December 2024, Arkham Intelligence had shown last year.
As part of the hearing of the case, the court will also decide what will happen to the seized BTC because the U.K. has denied any intention of creating a U.S.-like Bitcoin reserve from tokens seized during investigations. In May this year, U.K’s Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds had reportedly said that creating a crypto stockpile was not appropriate for the U.K. market.
The U.K. is also eyeing the year of 2016 to be ready with a comprehensive set of regulations to oversee the crypto sector.
