Bitcoin value £1.4bn seized after ex-takeaway employee tried to purchase £23m mansion, courtroom hears

Bitcoin value greater than £1.4bn was seized by police after a former Chinese takeaway employee tried to purchase a £23.5m Hampstead mansion, a courtroom has heard.

Jian Wen, 42, is alleged to have acted as a “front person” to assist launder a number of the earnings of a £5bn funding fraud carried out in China by Zhimin Qian between 2014 and 2017.

Qian purchased cryptocurrency to get the proceeds in a foreign country earlier than coming to the UK utilizing the false identification Yadi Zhang on a St Kitts and Nevis passport, a jury was instructed.

She fled the UK and continues to be at giant after police raided the six-bedroom home they rented for greater than £17,000 a month close to Hampstead Heath in northwest London, in addition to a security deposit field.

Officers seized gadgets containing digital wallets holding greater than 61,000 Bitcoin, valued at greater than £1.4bn when police gained entry in the summertime of 2021.

Wen, who will not be stated to have been concerned within the underlying fraud or had entry to the entire Bitcoin, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court, the place she denies three counts of cash laundering between October 2017 and January 2022.

Prosecutor Gillian Jones KC stated Wen does not dispute coping with the Bitcoin, however claims she was Zhang’s carer and the jury must determine whether or not she knew or suspected it was the proceeds of crime.

She stated that when Zhang – who used aliases together with Rose, Emma, and Hua Hua – flew into London in 2017, she wanted to transform the cryptocurrency again into money or “property, jewellery or other high-value items”.

Before assembly Zhang, Wen – a Chinese nationwide who moved to the UK in 2007 and have become a British citizen in 2018 – had labored in a Chinese takeaway in southeast London and lived in room beneath the restaurant.

Wen known as Zhang her “boss” they usually claimed to be concerned in a global jewelry enterprise, buying and selling in diamonds and antiques in international locations together with Japan, Thailand and China, the prosecutor stated.

The pair travelled extensively all through Europe, promoting Bitcoin and shopping for fantastic jewelry, together with watches value round £49,300 and £69,900 from Van Cleef & Arpels in Switzerland.

The courtroom heard they mentioned shopping for properties in Zurich earlier than Wen, who remained within the UK whereas Zhang rented a property in Sweden, tried to purchase actual property in London.

Ms Jones stated the properties included a seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion with a swimming pool, which was available on the market for £23.5m, and a £12.5m eight-bedroom residence with a cinema and health club.

But not one of the purchases went forward as a result of the supply of the Bitcoin could not be defined, the jury was instructed.

The prosecutor stated Wen initially claimed the cryptocurrency had been mined, then stated it was a “love present”, drawing up a deed of reward stating she had been given 3,000 Bitcoin, then value £15m, by Zhang.

“That is quite a pay cheque,” the prosecutor instructed jurors. “You are going to have to look carefully at the circumstances of that purported gift.

“A gesture by a really beneficiant benefactor happy with the care and help offered, or a tool or sham to create an air of legitimacy as to the supply of funds when Miss Wen tried to buy excessive worth property on behalf of Miss Zhang.”

The trial continues.