Bitcoin Queen convicted of money laundering, sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison

Jane Wen, a 42-year-old British Chinese woman who was described as the "Queen of Bitcoin", was convicted of assisting money laundering and was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison on Friday (24th).

The 5 billion pounds (about 30 billion ringgit) involved in the case was defrauded by his accomplices from 128,000 investors in China. Although Jian Wen did not participate in the fraud, he helped conceal the source of funds and exchanged Bitcoin for cash and purchased real estate.

The prosecution pointed out that in 2021, British police seized an electronic wallet containing more than 61,000 bitcoins during an investigation. This is one of the largest batches of virtual currencies seized by law enforcement agencies worldwide. At that time, it was worth about 1.4 billion pounds, and its current value has risen to more than 3 billion pounds. The money was obtained by another woman from fraud in China between 2014 and 2017.

The prosecution said Jian Wen moved to the UK in 2007 and worked in a takeaway Chinese restaurant. She later saw an advertisement on the social platform WeChat, where the other party claimed to be a diamond and antique trader who was recruiting a "housekeeper."

Just a few weeks after meeting the man in London, Jianwen became a wealthy person, living in a London mansion with a monthly rent of 17,000 pounds and driving a Mercedes saloon car. Her son later went to the UK from China to attend a school with a tuition fee of 6,000 pounds (about 36,011 ringgit) per term.

Jianwen then tried to buy a super luxury house in London worth 23.5 million pounds (about 140 million ringgit) and 12.5 million pounds (about 75.02 million ringgit). The police began to suspect the source of her funds and launched a money laundering investigation. Jianwen failed to explain the source of the funds and was eventually arrested. Jianwen denied money laundering and stressed that she had no knowledge of the case and only thought that the person who gave her the money was a wealthy man.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court found Jian Wen guilty of one of the charges in March this year, but failed to reach a verdict on the other two charges. Judge Hales sentenced Jian Wen to six years and eight months in prison on Friday for one count of money laundering.