The UK government is investigating Jian Wen, a British-Chinese woman, for laundering $6 billion worth of Bitcoin from a crime committed in China. The crypto funds came from a multi-year wealth management crime conducted by a woman called Yadi Zhang.
Zhang reportedly stole the money between 2014 and 2017 in China and converted the funds to Bitcoin before arriving in London under a false identity. Wen helped Zhang to convert Bitcoin into cash, jewelry, and other big-ticket items.
Bitcoin Crypto Charges Different From China Crime
According to the UK Crown Prosecution, Zhang was not involved in the multi-billion dollar fraud. Instead, the prosecution argues, she was the one who shielded Zhang from law enforcement.
Wen said she thought her former boss was an above-board businesswoman who made her fortune from jewelry, Bitcoin, and property. The trial may continue until early March.
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The use of Bitcoin to launder criminal proceeds has been scrutinized by authorities globally in 2023. Last year, they charged digital payment and crypto companies around $5 billion for various anti-money laundering failures. Crypto exchange Binance bore the brunt of the penalties, incurring a $4.3 billion fine from US regulators.
According to Dennis Kelleher, the CEO of Better Markets, the volume of high-profile crypto fraud cases surged in 2023. The CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, and the CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, were both guilty of financial crimes in 2023.
“The pervasive fraud and criminality in the high-profile crypto arena forced regulators and prosecutors to divert resources,” Kelleher said.
Pig Butchering Crypto Crime Increases
In China, in particular, crypto scams have grown rampant. A Reuters report in late 2023 found that Chinese businessman Wang Yicheng had received at least $90 million in crypto proceeds from so-called pig-butchering scams.
In these scams, criminals trick unsuspecting victims into a romantic relationship before encouraging them to invest in a cryptocurrency. The criminal usually owns the platform they ask victims to direct funds to.
Read more: Crypto Social Media Scams: How to Stay Safe
According to Reuters, Yicheng cultivated relationships with high-ranking Thai police officials while receiving proceeds from his criminal activity. Authorities in the US traced around $500,000 worth of crypto stolen from a resident in Massachusetts to an account controlled by Yicheng. In a separate case, the US Department of Justice seized $112 million in crypto from six crypto accounts related to pig-butchering.
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