How the Chinese cryptoqueen’s $6.5 billion Bitcoin empire fell apart

How did the Chinese cryptoqueen build a $6.5 billion Bitcoin empire before her arrest exposed one of the largest crypto crimes in history?

Chinese cryptoqueen’s billion-dollar scam exposed

Crypto’s long history with scams has added another chapter, one that stretches across continents and involves billions of dollars.

British prosecutors have convicted Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, for orchestrating a Ponzi-style investment fraud that operated in China. The scheme lured more than 100,000 investors who collectively poured billions into what appeared to be a legitimate wealth management business.

Qian was arrested in York in 2024 after several years on the run and pleaded guilty in a London court in September 2025 to charges of acquiring criminal property and money laundering. On Nov. 11, she was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison by Southwark Crown Court.

Authorities said her conviction followed one of the most complex financial investigations ever conducted by the Metropolitan Police, involving international coordination and detailed tracing of digital assets.

During the investigation, British police uncovered an unusually large cache of cryptocurrency linked to the fraud. More than 61,000 Bitcoin (BTC) were seized, making it one of the largest confirmed crypto recoveries in the United Kingdom.

At market values during the proceedings, that amount was worth 5 billion pounds, or roughly $6.55 billion. Civil recovery proceedings are still ongoing to determine how these funds will be returned to victims.

Several of Qian’s associates were also convicted for their roles in transferring and laundering the stolen funds. Seng Hok Ling received four years and eleven months in prison, while Jian Wen was sentenced to six years and eight months.

Additional individuals involved in the original fraud were prosecuted in China, where more than eighty people have been convicted.

From Beijing investments to British real estate

Between 2014 and 2017, Zhimin Qian ran a large-scale investment operation in China through a company called Lantian Gerui. The scheme targeted everyday investors with promises of unusually high returns, attracting billions of dollars in total investments.

After the scheme collapsed and several prosecutions followed, Qian left China in July 2017 carrying a laptop wallet that contained tens of thousands of Bitcoin.

She entered the United Kingdom in September 2017 using a St. Kitts and Nevis passport. British authorities later confirmed her arrival and movements across Europe under multiple aliases. She kept a low profile while managing the conversion of fraud proceeds into crypto and cash.

In October 2018, UK investigators searched her Hampstead residence and the following day seized a safety-deposit box. Inside, they found a digital wallet containing 4,741.36 Bitcoin, then valued at around £25.2 million.

Her laundering strategy involved moving between fiat and crypto, spreading funds across multiple wallets and intermediaries, and attempting to reintroduce assets into the economy through luxury purchases and high-value real estate.

The cover began to unravel when suspicious financial activity linked to property transactions triggered cross-border alerts. British authorities launched a deeper investigation, and in April 2024, Metropolitan Police officers arrested Qian in York along with her associate, Seng Hok Ling.

Investigators seized encrypted electronic devices, false passports, cash, gold, and more than 61,000 Bitcoin, which were later confirmed to have originated from the laundering network.

Who owns the seized Bitcoin

Victims of the Lantian Gerui fraud have urged that the seized Bitcoin be returned to them rather than retained by the British state.

Legal representatives acting for several victim groups have publicly stated that the frozen cryptocurrency is the rightful property of those defrauded investors.

Lawyers William Glover and Stephen Cartwright have argued that the victims are entitled to recover their assets from the Bitcoin currently held under UK jurisdiction, noting that those funds have remained beyond reach for years.

Under the United Kingdom’s Proceeds of Crime Act, victims seeking restitution must apply under Section 281 to assert a proprietary interest in confiscated assets. 

The Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed that it will delay any vesting application under Section 266 while giving affected parties time to seek legal advice and file claims.

This approach allows coordination between individual victims, legal representatives, and the authorities overseeing the civil recovery process. Two major legal questions have emerged from the proceedings. 

The first concerns how restitution should be valued, whether compensation should match the original losses denominated in renminbi or the current market value of the seized Bitcoin, which has risen sharply since its confiscation. The second question concerns how competing international claims will be reconciled.

Prosecutors have proposed a court-supervised compensation framework to manage the distribution of funds and address overlapping claims from multiple jurisdictions. The plan remains under judicial review and may face challenges over enforcement and prioritization among claimants.

Many victims have already received partial compensation through mechanisms established in China, though a considerable number remain unpaid and are now seeking recovery through the UK courts. 

Legal analysts and independent reports have pointed out several barriers facing claimants, including the difficulty of proving ownership over specific Bitcoin, the need for coordination with Chinese authorities, and the likelihood that courts may favor repayment of original losses rather than awarding gains linked to Bitcoin’s price increase.

The evolution of crypto crime

Crypto’s early years witnessed some of the largest financial crimes in digital history. Cases such as OneCoin and PlusToken exposed how fraud networks operated before modern compliance systems emerged.

OneCoin, described in multiple enforcement filings as a global pyramid scheme, collected billions of dollars from investors without ever using a real blockchain.

PlusToken’s operators raised an estimated $2–3 billion in crypto before disappearing. Investigators later traced the sale of stolen assets through informal over-the-counter networks and unregulated brokers.

Money-laundering methods evolved quickly as these scandals unfolded. In the early years, criminals relied on poorly regulated exchanges and custodial wallets to hide stolen funds.

As those channels tightened, laundering began moving through on-chain obfuscation tools such as mixers, decentralized finance protocols, and cross-chain bridges.

Large bridge hacks and smart contract exploits also became both a source of theft and a way to disguise existing funds. State-linked hacking groups started using cryptocurrency theft to gain access to convertible foreign assets.

Authorities and regulators expanded their approach in response. Blockchain analytics platforms made it possible to trace digital money across multiple chains, leading to coordinated seizures and prosecutions.

In 2022, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the Tornado Cash mixer after tracking billions of dollars laundered through it, raising new legal questions about how financial law applies to decentralized code.

Research from firms such as Chainalysis indicates that while illicit crypto activity still measures in the billions, its share of the total market has declined as exchanges and payment services have improved monitoring.

Recovering stolen assets remains a technical and legal challenge. Investigators can seize large holdings when wallet ownership is proven, but restitution often stalls due to disputes over valuation and jurisdiction.

The cycle continues as criminals create new concealment methods, investigators enhance tracing tools, and courts work to convert digital evidence into fair financial recovery. The ultimate victim remains the user, and the loop endures.