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Police! UK police have been hunting this woman for seven years. They're after her. But mostly, they're after her computers.
The story of China's biggest Bitcoin scam, its mastermind, and the multi-billion dollar fraud uncovered after years of pursuit.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Cryptocurrency scams can exploit social and economic vulnerabilities, such as elderly loneliness.
- Rapid regulatory changes and startup booms can create opportunities for large-scale fraud.
- Bitcoin's anonymity and volatility make it a favored tool for laundering illicit gains.
- Law enforcement faces challenges tracking and prosecuting international crypto fraud.
- Victims of financial scams often suffer severe personal and economic consequences.
What the video covers
- UK police have been hunting a woman involved in one of China's largest Bitcoin scams for seven years.
- The scam involved a multi-billion dollar Bitcoin fraud operated from a ghost city in China.
- The fraud exploited the surge in Bitcoin interest in China following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and subsequent charity donations.
- Jihan Wu and later Qian (alias Li Xia) used camellia oil sales and membership schemes as fronts for their operations.
- Qian targeted elderly Chinese citizens, exploiting loneliness and fears with health products like GPS-enabled life bracelets.
- The scam promised collective prosperity and financial security for multiple generations to lure investors.
- Qian used forged passports and aliases to evade capture while living a luxurious lifestyle funded by laundered Bitcoin.
- Authorities struggled to link the Bitcoin transactions directly to the fraud, complicating prosecution.
- Many investors lost life savings, with some falling into poverty due to the scam.
- Despite attempts, most victims declined interviews, highlighting the scam's devastating personal impact.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to the Bitcoin Scam and Police Hunt
- 01:29Bitcoin Surge in China Post-Sichuan Earthquake
- 02:51Jihan Wu and Tianjin's Ghost City Context
- 04:08Camellia Oil Business and Membership Scheme
- 05:26New Business Idea Targeting Elderly Population
- 06:42Exploiting Elderly Fears with Health Products
- 09:13Promises of Collective Prosperity and Investor Events
- 13:12Bitcoin Transactions, Mining Machines, and Fraud Exposure
- 15:57Escape, Luxury Lifestyle, and Money Laundering
- 19:47Investigation, Arrest Attempts, and Victim Impact
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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Laptops that may hold the keys to unlocking the story of one of the biggest scams in Chinese history.
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A cult of personality. Families torn apart. Marriages destroyed. Life savings gone forever. And at the center of it all, her.
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The mastermind of a multi-billion dollar Bitcoin fraud. This is the story of an operation run from deep within a ghost city. A daring escape, life in outrageous luxury, and dreams of ruling an entire country.
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It's 8:00 in the morning in the Chinese province of Sichuan. For most people, the day begins like any other.
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But then the ground begins to rumble, and a 7.0 earthquake rocks the entire region.
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Almost 200 people are killed. More than 13,000 are injured. Across 18 prefectures, hundreds of thousands of homes are destroyed.
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News of the disaster quickly spreads around the world. Donations begin pouring in. The Chinese charity One Foundation announces that it will also accept donations in Bitcoin.
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[music] Within just two days, the organization receives a large number of Bitcoins, between 50 and 230, depending on the source.
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In the weeks after the earthquake, Chinese [music] state TV broadcasts programs about the cryptocurrency. A program called The Mysterious Bitcoin explains what it is, how it works, and its meteoric rise in worth.
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China Central Television, or CCTV, also airs an interview with a man who claims he made a six-figure fortune through Bitcoin trading.
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He'll later become famous as China's first Bitcoin billionaire. [music] Bitcoin has officially been around since 2009, but in China, most people are now hearing about it for the very first time.
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Many are fascinated, and Bitcoin quickly starts getting traction nationwide. China's main search engine, Baidu, begins accepting it as a payment method.
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Soon after, [music] so does the online shopping platform Taobao. Later on in 2013, two new Bitcoin [music] exchanges emerge. In the months that follow, more and more people in China start buying the cryptocurrency.
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This sudden surge in demand pushes the global price even higher. And all the hype will turn out to be extremely convenient for one woman in particular.
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[music] This is Jihan Wu. Her biography is difficult to piece together. Our reconstruction is largely based on a detailed profile published by the Chinese magazine China Newsweek.
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[music] Right now, it's early 2014. Jihan Wu is 36 years old and lives here in Tianjin, a sprawling metropolis with more than 11 million residents.
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The city was supposed to keep growing. There were plans for new office towers, luxury apartments, and a bustling financial district. One neighborhood was even expected to become China's new Manhattan.
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But construction stalls. Many buildings are left unfinished, and parts [music] of Tianjin look abandoned.
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Some start calling it a ghost city. Wages are low in China, and consumer prices are rising fast.
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In 2014, the country loosens its business registration rules to boost the economy. Entrepreneurs can now register their companies more quickly, and they need less startup capital. The reforms lead to a massive startup boom. Across China, thousands of businesses are
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registered every day. But Wu is already a step ahead of everyone else. About a year ago, she and a couple of business partners founded a company, UBS International Group Limited Hong Kong.
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At the time, instead of a real name, she uses an alias, Li Xia. The business has partnered with a company that produces and distributes camellia oil.
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People in East Asia have been using it for things like skin and hair care for centuries.
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This is what Qian's business strategy allegedly looks like. UBS promotes the camellia oil and advertises group tours to the partner company's camellia production sites. But to be able to actually buy the products, customers first need to purchase a membership.
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That costs 2,800 yuan. Members who recruit others qualify for extra benefits. It seems Qian herself is rarely seen at the office. Day-to-day operations are reportedly handled by her employees.
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For a while, business seems to run smoothly. But in May 2013, the camellia oil company ends the partnership.
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And about a month later, things get worse. The company website starts malfunctioning and third-party payment accounts are frozen.
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A little later, Qian sends her employees a text message. "Don't worry, I'm collecting money for us." Then police raid the company's headquarters.
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But Qian is nowhere to be found. Since making her escape, Qian has been extremely cautious. She reportedly even avoids taking the bus to keep authorities from tracking her movements.
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Presumably, she'd have to show her ID when boarding public transportation. The UBS venture may have been little more than a way to experiment with different strategies.
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She'll go on to use much of what she learned here in her later endeavors.
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And she already has a new idea. One that will forever change her life and the lives of countless others. Maybe you've had an idea recently. Not one that would change countless lives, or at least not one that would ruin any. But
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each time you want to get started on it, it just turns into a whole thing. Pick a platform, figure out the information, and make it look not terrible. So you sort of give up. We just launched Roots, our newsletter. We've got a talented
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team, a developer, an idea, and a platform. Most people don't, and that's kind of the point. With our sponsor, Emergent, you can build a landing page like this without the technical skills.
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By describing instead of coding, you can keep refining things as you go, changing the design and adding features and reorganizing without starting from scratch. And while we were at it, we asked for a simple form so readers can
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suggest stories for us to cover with a dashboard to comb through what comes in.
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If you've got something you've been meaning to build yourself, there's a link to Emergent in the description.
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Today's the day. Qin registers another company. Tianjin Lantian Guorui Electronic Technology. It's widely known as Lantian Guorui, which means blue sky.
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Qin seems to know exactly what she wants to sell and to whom. China's home to roughly 200 million elderly people. About one in six citizens is over 60, and many of them are lonely.
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In the past, families often had several children. Siblings could share the responsibility of caring for their parents and grandparents.
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But in 1979, China introduced a one-child policy to help curb its rapid population growth.
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From that point forward, fewer children were born. Most parents had just one child who often had to care for the family's older generations on their own.
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At the same time, more and more younger people left their hometowns to study or work in major cities. As a result, many elderly people were left to live alone.
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In 2013, the government responded by introducing a new law. Adult children are now legally required to visit their parents frequently and be attentive to their emotional needs.
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For Qin, elderly people are the perfect target. She seems to understand exactly how to exploit their loneliness and their anxieties. Step by step, she begins building a manipulative business empire.
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Step one, the front. Qin's company sells a range of health products. One is the life bracelet. It has an integrated GPS tracking chip, so whoever wears it can supposedly be located within 15 meters of their current position.
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In an emergency, an elderly person just has to press the red button and an ambulance will be with them within 10 [music] minutes.
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The product taps directly into one of older people's biggest fears, being alone and helpless during a medical emergency.
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That helps build trust in Chen and her company. And if you trust a company with your health, you may eventually trust it with your savings, too.
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Step two, the plan. Chen isn't really trying to sell health products. To push her actual business model, she hires promoters all
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Chen claims that Lantian Guire is mining Bitcoin, that it's setting up high-powered Bitcoin mines all across China to generate more crypto units.
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And for that, she needs money. Step three, the promise. Chen is looking for investors. She probably uses WeChat to advertise and close deals. Apparently, investors can choose from special financial packages.
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These reportedly range from 30,000 to 60,000 yuan, or roughly 4,200 to 8,400 dollars. The terms range from 12 to 30 months.
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Often, the funds aren't wired to Chen's firm directly. Instead, investors first transfer them to local promoters advertising the service, who then pass it on to Chen.
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In return, she promises them daily dividends and a 200 to 600% profit for each contract.
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Chen and her company seem to have been selling the idea of collective prosperity. Invest for just three years and you'll be able to secure the financial future of the next three generations of your family.
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Step four, the scheme. Chen skillfully rides the wave of Bitcoin frenzy. It helps that many of her investors aren't very financially literate. Her Her produces glossy promotional videos promising a life of wealth and luxury in the United Kingdom,
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a country that carries a certain prestige in China. On her blog, Qin posts poems about social responsibility.
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[music] We must love the elderly with the infatuation of a first romance. [music] Poetry has always been an important part of Chinese traditional culture. Poems are meant to entertain and convey values like respect, family duty, and social order. Maybe that's why Qin's vision
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resonates with so many people. She also emphasizes that her company would help further China's goal of becoming a global leader in technology.
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She even claims that she'll one day donate the company to the Chinese government. Her patriotic message lands with investors.
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But one investor will later claim she deliberately exploited the patriotism of older Chinese citizens.
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In reality, she went much further than that. It's autumn in Beijing. More than a thousand people have gathered here today.
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Many have already invested in Qin's company, Others are still considering it. But all of them are here to see the woman behind the business.
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So far, they know almost nothing about her. Only that she reportedly holds a PhD in mathematics and cryptography, and that she works so hard she barely has time to sleep.
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Qin rarely appears in public. She almost exclusively communicates through the poems she posts on her blog.
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There are barely any photos of her, and in most of them her face is partially concealed.
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Even today, she's wearing a veil. Nobody here knows her real name. Her investors call her Hua Hua, or little flower.
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Qin enters in a wheelchair. Her investors lift her above their heads and carry her toward the stage. They're chanting the company's promise, "Three generations of wealth." Events like this happen regularly, usually inside large, prestigious halls. Attendees usually aren't allowed to bring their phones or
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take photos or video, maybe because Chen wants to remain anonymous. After all, she's been trying to stay under the radar ever since fleeing Hefei.
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The gatherings are massive. There are dance performances, presentations, and speeches praising and vouching for the company. One speaker is the son-in-law of Mao Zedong, the late founding father of the People's Republic.
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Mao remains a deeply respected figure in China, especially among older generations. The atmosphere at these promotional events is frenetic.
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One investor will later tell The Observer that people were captivated by Chen as soon as she opened her mouth.
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After her speeches, people would battle their way to the front with their credit cards ready.
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Another investor says, "That bunch of promoters, they'd take something red and persuade you it was white. Take something black and convince you it was red." Apparently, there were also private meetings with Chen.
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Those who invested more than $800,000 were reportedly invited to more intimate events. One attendee says everyone in the room was starstruck.
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They saw her as their goddess of wealth. [music] Over time, more and more people pour money into Chen's growing business empire, public servants, school teachers, widows, and retirees. They're all hoping crypto will turn their modest life savings into a fortune. Most are
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between 50 and 75 years old. By 2017, Chen has attracted more than 128,000 investors across China and collected more than 40 billion yuan, roughly $6.1 billion.
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But she hasn't been keeping her promise to use their money to create new crypto tokens in her mining farms.
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Back in 2014, she used an associate's name to open an account in the Huobi cryptocurrency exchange, which today is called HTX, and she transferred investors' money into that account, exchanging it for Bitcoin. At first, her investors received exactly what they
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were promised, daily dividends. Anyone who recruits friends or relatives gets even more. One investor would tell the BBC he and his wife were receiving 100 yuan a day, roughly $14.
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They were so hooked, they directly reinvested this into the company and kept borrowing to invest more on top of it.
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They didn't know that these payouts weren't actually coming from crypto profits. They were funded by new investors.
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It was a classic Ponzi scheme. And it only worked as long as new investors kept pouring in new money.
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One investor would later say he never suspected a thing. After a few years of this, some investors were invited to visit the company's Bitcoin mines.
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And the trip inspired some of them to invest even more money. Hundreds of investors have traveled from Shenyang and other cities to Tianjin.
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The outskirts of the city are lined with warehouse after warehouse. One was built on a vacant lot. On the front is the slogan, Tianjin Blue Sky Guore Bitcoin Warehouse.
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This must be it. But when the investors go inside, none of the mining machines are working.
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An employee tells them the company intentionally turned them off to avoid exposing them to radiation. Most of the investors don't question the explanation. One even leaves the site visit so convinced she decides to invest significantly more money.
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It's only years later that some investors begin to suspect the machines they saw were actually worthless junk.
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According to reports, they were eventually sold as scrap for 30 yuan apiece. For 3 years, Chen's operation appears to run smoothly. New investors keep joining and their money funds payouts for existing members.
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But in 2017, Chinese authorities finally get suspicious and launch an investigation. The Bitcoin hype is reaching fever pitch, at least among the Chinese public. By now, the country has has one of the largest cryptocurrency markets in the world.
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But Bitcoin and other digital currencies are also used for criminal activities like money laundering, drug trafficking, and smuggling. They are risk to financial stability, and they undermine government control over the fiscal system. So Chinese authorities want to crack down on them. They plan to tighten
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control over Bitcoin mining and trading. From there, they start closing in on Qin's company.
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Today, the authorities strike a coordinated blow. Raids take place across Xinjiang. Lantian Gory's employees are rounded up, but there's no trace of their boss.
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Qin has likely been preparing her escape for months. She purchased [music] several forged passports, including one from a Caribbean microstate, and is traveling under a new alias, Yadi Zhang.
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She also transferred her Bitcoins from the Huobi exchange into several private crypto wallets. The wallets are stored locally on her laptop.
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But as with any cryptocurrency, they don't contain the actual Bitcoins, just the digital keys needed to prove ownership and access them.
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At this point, Qin's wallets hold about 70,000 Bitcoins. At the time, they're worth almost $400 million.
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[music] It remains unclear whether Qin knew the raid was coming, and if she did, who might have tipped her off.
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Maybe she bribed a corrupt official. Either way, she's on the run for several months, apparently moving from China to Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Malaysia.
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According to London's Metropolitan Police, she eventually boards a first-class flight from Kuala Lumpur to London.
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[music] On September 16, 2017, she arrives at Heathrow Airport. She isn't carrying any luggage but her laptop. She moves into a mansion in London's affluent Hampstead neighborhood.
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The rent is more than 17,000 pounds a month. [music] She also opens an account with Harrods, one of the world's most exclusive department stores. Over the following months, she spends more than 90,000 pounds on designer jewelry and clothing.
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She travels across Europe, too, but she carefully avoids countries that have extradition treaties with China.
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She keeps attracting people and getting them to break the law for her. Just a few weeks after arriving in London, Chen meets a woman named Jian Wen.
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Wen is 37 and works at a Chinese takeaway. The two get along well. Before long, Wen moves into Chen's mansion. Officially, she's Chen's caretaker. In reality, she also becomes her trusted accomplice. For example, Chen sends her to Thailand to retrieve
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the laptop she abandoned on her way to the UK. Once Chen can access her Bitcoins again, the two start spending some serious money.
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They would just message about like going to buy jewelry, right? Like we've had a stressful day. They didn't really say that, but like once we're done with this, let's cash out the Bitcoin, let's go to Jewelry Street, right? And then
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the other message was like obsessed with jewelry. This is Aisha Down, a journalist with The Guardian. She investigated the story. Wen will later tell the courts that Chen spent most of her time in bed playing video games and shopping online.
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As Bitcoin's value keeps rocketing, she seems to be achieving what she once promised her clients, getting rich lying down.
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She isn't afraid to dream big, either. In her diary, she documents her bold plans for the years to come.
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Chen wants to found her own bank, buy a castle in Sweden, and build a relationship with a British duke. She also dreams of becoming queen of Liberland, a small stretch of land between Croatia and Serbia right along the Danube River.
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The territory isn't officially recognized as a micronation, but its inhabitants consider it an independent republic with democratic elections.
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Chen has ambitious plans for the 7-square-kilometer region. She wants to build a harbor, an airport, and the world's largest Buddhist temple.
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In Liberland, Chen would find herself among like-minded people. Its self-proclaimed prime minister is the controversial crypto billionaire Justin Sun, who founded his own blockchain network.
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He also controls the Huobi crypto exchange where Chen used to store her Bitcoins. In her imagination, becoming a monarch will entitle her to a diplomatic passport and immunity from prosecution.
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She even sets aside a budget of 5 million pounds to buy herself a crown and scepter. The sky's the limit. She also dreams of the Dalai Lama anointing her a reincarnated goddess.
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But for now, Chen is still here in London, living in a rented house. [music] Among other things, she claims to run a successful jewelry business.
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To fund her lifestyle, she converts Bitcoins to regular currency, but large deposits would probably make her bank suspicious. So, she has to conceal where the money really comes from. In other words, she needs to launder it.
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And one of the oldest tricks in the book is real estate. So, she plans to buy expensive properties to turn her dirty money into seemingly legitimate assets.
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[music] Chen and Wen start looking for the right London luxury home. They make three attempts [music] to buy multi-million pound properties. The most expensive is listed at 23.5 million.
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But their efforts are hampered by their difficulties converting enough Bitcoins into cash. And by British anti-money laundering regulations and their so-called know-your-customer questions. Questions like these are designed to detect money laundering schemes.
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The first round of scrutiny often comes from the real estate agent, the second from the bank. Apparently, Wen's answers to these questions are unconvincing.
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And realtors and lawyers reject her bids to buy the properties. [music] Shortly after, London's Metropolitan Police are tipped off about a suspicious bank account. The money in it is believed to come from criminal activity.
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[music] The officers decide to take a closer look. Once they have the necessary court orders, they gain access [music] to the account. And their suspicion grows. With reasonable grounds to suspect that the money is dirty, they freeze the account.
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They also send an email to the account holder. It's Wen. By now, investigators are closing in on her. They know where she lives. They're just waiting for a search warrant.
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When they finally enter the house, they find two people, Wen and an unknown woman. Lying in bed, she claims her name is Yadi Zhang.
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The officers have no idea who they're really talking to. So, you don't normally live here?
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Yeah. And where where are you from? Where's Where's your country? I couldn't understand English.
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I think they believed that she was a a sick relative and not the mastermind of a multi-billion dollar Bitcoin fraud.
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As they raid the house, the officers find 300,000 pounds in cash and checks. They also seize laptops, memory cards, and a large amount of paperwork. But for the time being, neither of the women is arrested.
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The police search the confiscated computers and find that they contain several crypto wallets. But accessing the wallets and the cryptocurrency they contain requires the correct encryption keys.
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In the course of their investigation, the Metropolitan Police eventually obtain them. They find over 71,000 Bitcoins stored in seven wallets.
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It's the largest Bitcoin seizure in British history. But it isn't Jian's entire fortune. In August 2020, police return to her house for a second raid. But this time, she isn't there. She's gone missing again.
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When's the last time you spoke to her? I don't know. A few months. If she had have been here today, I would have arrested her.
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This time, there's just Wen. The investigation takes its course, and 2 years later, she's arrested and charged with money laundering. In 2024, she's sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison.
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After After ways with Wen, the fugitive Chen moves into an inconspicuous townhouse in York. Several employees work for her illegally, taking care of her everyday needs.
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Everyone in the house has to follow a strict set of rules. The staff isn't allowed to use Bluetooth or phones from Chinese brands. They're limited to only certain social media platforms. They can't disclose the house's address or even log into its Wi-Fi network. And
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they're strictly forbidden from taking photos or videos of Chen. All these requirements are neatly laid out in confidentiality agreements later obtained by the Metropolitan Police.
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Anyone who breaks the rules faces hefty financial penalties and will be fired on the spot.
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At some point, Chen also seeks the help of a Malaysian national named Seng Hong Ling. According to Ling himself, the two first met in Germany in 2019. He'll later testify he believed Chen was a legitimate businesswoman.
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But Chen plans to use him to once again launder money. British authorities have seized most of her Bitcoins, but she still controls other crypto wallets worth around 62 million pounds.
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She gives Ling money to purchase properties in Dubai on her behalf. But Ling is closely following Wen's criminal trial.
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By now, he knows that both women have been involved in criminal activity. And maybe he's beginning to realize that he's much more involved in their schemes than he'd like.
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One day, he starts Googling. February 2024. For 6 years, Metropolitan Police investigators have been monitoring Chen's crypto wallets. The Bitcoins inside them are now worth roughly 1.5 billion pounds.
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In all these years, there hasn't been a single transaction. No indication that Chen has touched her fortune.
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Until now. She just transferred 8.2 Bitcoins to another exchange account. The account is registered in Ling's name, and the investigators embark on a manhunt.
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They want to know whether Ling and Chen are in touch. The trail leads them to Scotland and Northern England.
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Then one day, Chen suddenly appears on surveillance cameras. By now, they're convinced Ling is working for her.
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They could move in right now. But there can't be any loose ends this time.
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They need airtight proof that Chen's Bitcoins are tied directly to the fraud case in China.
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They want to know for sure where exactly the Bitcoins came from. A blockchain specialist helps them follow the money through its transaction history to see who received the Bitcoins when.
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Chinese authorities provide them with a list of bank accounts connected to the scam. The investors Chen deceived are said to have deposited money into 294 different Chinese bank accounts. They received payouts from 48 different accounts.
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With that information, investigators re-examine the electronic devices they seized in their first raid. And voila, many of the account numbers provided by the Chinese authorities also appear on the confiscated and the laptops.
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Now the [music] connection is clear, and Chen is directly linked to the fraud in China. At last, a judge gives the Metropolitan Police the green light.
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[music] Chen hears something. There's someone inside the house. Moments later, someone kicks in the door to her room.
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Honey? Honey? We are. After 7 years on the run, they finally found her. You're under arrest. You're going to be arrested for money laundering, section 329 Proceeds of Crime Act.
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And this time, there's nowhere left to go. Chen and Ling's trial ends today. The hearing is public, but the courtroom is so small that only a handful of people fit inside. [music] I sat on the floor at one point. There
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wasn't a lot of room. Aisha is one of the few journalists in the room.
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She followed the last days of the trial for the Guardian. It was just a fairly sober atmosphere.
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Chen sits inside a glass dock. From the public gallery, it's difficult to get a good look at her.
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Throughout the proceedings, she doesn't say a word. Everything she wants to say she communicates through her lawyer.
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She remained largely silent when the police questioned her, too. Her only statement was that she was the victim of false allegations made by the Chinese authorities.
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She also felt that she would die soon, and that this had been her last chance to spend some money.
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The thing I noticed was that the defenses statements really didn't land at all. And the defense sort of spoke briefly in the last day of the proceedings, you know, talking about how their their client had been a [music]
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a model prisoner. Jin's lawyer later claims that she and her company only ever wanted to help people accumulate wealth, but the reality is different.
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Some of her investors ended up in poverty. One tells the BBC that he sometimes had so little money left he would have to survive on a single pack of instant noodles for 15 days.
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Another says Jin's scheme destroyed his marriage and led to him being estranged from his son.
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Others say they contemplated suicide. Ling is sentenced to 4 years and 11 months in prison.
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Jin gets 11 years and 8 months. It seemed like, from my impression of her, that she maybe had hoped things would go a little differently. She burst into tears, or it looked like she was bursting into tears. It looked like she
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was upset by the verdict. After the ruling, Jin's lawyer emails a statement to the press.
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Bitcoin pioneer, Ms. Jin, once the world's largest female BTC holder, accepts her conviction and the mistakes that led to it. Many of her former investors feel betrayed, and some demand compensation.
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In China, some investors appeal to the Supreme People's Court, the State Council, and other national institutions, not to condemn Jin's actions, but to ask for an explanation as to why her company was shut down.
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One still sees Qin as the goddess of the crypto world. He would die for her, and he wishes she'd return.
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We tried to speak to some of the investors for this video, but almost everyone we contacted turned down our interview requests.
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Only one woman agreed to talk, but she had a condition. We had to promise that we'd help her get her money back.
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Apparently, a few people did. This article says Chinese authorities used confiscated assets from Qin's company to compensate some former investors. They received a small percentage of the money they put in.
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But it remains unclear whether all the victims in China will ever recover their investments.
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First, they have to prove that they actually invested [music] in Qin's company. And that may be difficult since many deposits weren't sent directly to her, but to the accounts of local promoters operating on her behalf.
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For now, the seized assets remain frozen in the UK. British law classifies them as recoverable amounts, meaning authorities [music] must first determine whether victims are really entitled to compensation.
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Only then can the state touch the money. Decisions on the applications are expected later on in 2026.
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Who knows? Maybe some of Qin's investors will get rich after all.
Topics:Bitcoin scamChina fraudcryptocurrency fraudJihan WuQian Li XiaBitcoin launderingelderly exploitationghost city Chinamulti-billion dollar scamcryptocurrency crime
