A British-Chinese citizen is denying involvement in a Bitcoin money laundering scheme worth $6.3 billion, which UK authorities are contesting.
Financial Times reports that 42-year-old Jian Wen, a dual citizen, has entered a not guilty plea to three charges of money laundering on behalf of Yadi Zhang, her former employer.
Between 2014 and 2017, Zhang allegedly embezzled $6.3 billion via a series of investment fraud schemes, according to Beijing authorities. She has escaped at this time.
Although Wen claims ignorance of the stolen funds, she does acknowledge that she was in possession of one of three wallets connected to the crime. She testified before London’s Southwark Crown Court, saying, “I did not know or think that the bitcoin came from the crime. Absolutely no clue.”
In 2017, Wen applied to be Zhang’s butler at a London hotel; at the time, she was working at a takeout joint. The two eventually met. She asserts that Zhang informed her that she was involved in the Far Eastern antiques and jewelry trade. Zhang said that she engaged Wen to assist with her expansion into the UK. A few weeks later, the couple relocated to a six-bedroom home in the British capital, which they rented for $17,000 a month.
Zhang allegedly missed her police interrogation in October 2020, the night before they last talked, according to Wen. According to British authorities, Wen’s past Google searches raise red flags about possible money laundering and criminal extradition processes.
Investigations into the case have been continuing for more than five years, but news of it just broke at the year’s close.
After a search on the couple’s Hampstead property in 2018, the Metropolitan Police confiscated 61,000 Bitcoin—worth $1.7 billion then, or $2.5 billion now—from a safe that included four hardware wallets. By 2021, the authorities had recovered all of the bitcoin from the devices.
Zhang allegedly escaped to the United Kingdom in 2017 when police there were investigating her scam, according to prosecutor Gillian Jones. She was using a fictitious name. Despite the arrest of many members of her group, Zhang is still on the run.
According to Jones, Zhang used Wen as a “front person” to launder the stolen funds out of China using cryptocurrency.
He elaborated that when Zhang arrived in London, she transformed the money into currency or other valuable possessions like jewelry or real estate.
The court heard about the couple’s jewelry-buying adventures around Europe. Wen also made an unsuccessful attempt to purchase a pair of mansions with seven bedrooms and swimming pools, the first going for £23.5 million and the second for £12.5 million, respectively.
The jury will decide whether Wen knew or suspected that the Bitcoin she dealt with was the profit of a crime, even though she does not deny her role in dealing with Bitcoin.
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