Chinese crypto queen Qian Zhimin sentenced to 11 years in prison

Qian Zhimin, dubbed China’s “crypto queen”, has been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison in the UK for money laundering billions stolen from Chinese pensioners that she funneled into Bitcoin.

Judge Sally-Ann Hales told Southwark Crown Court that Qian orchestrated the scheme “from its inception to its conclusion”, describing his motive as “pure greed”.

The 44-year-old raised more than £4.2 billion from more than 120,000 investors, claiming his company developed health technology and mined cryptocurrencies, according to frontline police allegedly covering up extensive fraud. The reserve is now worth around £5 billion.

Zhimin fled China in 2017 as police began investigating and settled into a £17,000 house. ($22,700)One Hampstead Heath mansion per month under a false identity. A subsequent police raid uncovered tens of thousands of Bitcoins in what is believed to be the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the UK.

“The more information we got about her involvement…that she was in fact the one responsible for the fraud, not just a lower limb…it became clear that yes, she is very intelligent, very active, very manipulative, capable of persuading a lot of people,” said Detective Constable Joe Ryan of the Metropolitan Police Service.

Zhimin fled to UK after Chinese police launched investigation

Qian fled to the UK using a false passport. She posed as a wealthy heiress of antiques and diamonds when seeking to rent the mansion on Hampstead Heath. She then hired a former takeaway worker named Wen Jian as her personal assistant, whom she would ask to exchange cryptocurrencies for other assets such as money and goods.

The house Zhimin rented in Hampstead Heath (Source: Metropolitan Police)

It was during a search for assets that could be purchased with the stolen Bitcoin that Zhimin appeared on the authorities’ radar. This was an attempt to purchase a large property in Totteridge Common which was reported when Jian failed to take his boss’s wealth into account.

This sparked a police investigation and raid on Qian’s property in Hampstead. This led to what was believed to be the largest cryptocurrency seizure in UK history, with police discovering hard drives and laptops containing tens of thousands of Bitcoins.

It was then that authorities concluded that Zhimin was the mastermind behind the scam.

Zhimin promised victims they would become rich “lying down”

Qian told his investors that they could “get rich by lying down.”

According to her assistant, who appeared at her own trial last year and was sentenced to six years in prison for money laundering, Qian had spent most of her days lying in bed, shopping online and gambling.

Cryptoqueen BUSTED: Chinese fraudster Zhimin Qian sentenced to more than 11 years after UK seizes more than £5 billion in Bitcoin.

She had a treasure map hidden in her wallet. pic.twitter.com/77qkgG8ukU

– ₿ ♛ (@BaylenLatona) November 11, 2025

Yet she had drawn up a six-year plan for her next con, with notes in her diary describing her intention to found a national bank, buy a Swedish castle and even ingratiate herself with a British duke.

To top it off, Qian aimed to become queen of Liberland, an unrecognized microstate on the Croatian-Serbian border, by 2020.

Victims still hoping for cash back

Victims of his scheme said they hoped to get at least some of their money from British authorities.

“If we can gather all the evidence, we hope that the British government, the Crown Prosecution Service and the High Court can show some compassion,” a victim called Mr Yu told the BBC. “Because now only this Bitcoin (cryptocurrency) harvest can give us back some of what we lost.”

Yu and his wife initially invested 60,000 yuan (£6,295) each after learning they would receive a 200% profit over 2.5 years.

From the beginning, Qian distributed profits to investors to convince them the project was legitimate, prompting Yu and his wife to take out loans to invest even more in his fraudulent schemes.

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