Bitcoin value £1.4bn seized after ex-takeaway employee tried to purchase £23m mansion, court docket 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 court docket has heard.

Jian Wen, 42, is alleged to have acted as a “front person” to assist launder among 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 overseas earlier than coming to the UK utilizing the false identification Yadi Zhang on a St Kitts and Nevis passport, a jury was informed.

She fled the UK and remains 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 is just not mentioned to have been concerned within the underlying fraud or had entry to all the 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 mentioned Wen does not dispute coping with the Bitcoin, however claims she was Zhang’s carer and the jury must resolve whether or not she knew or suspected it was the proceeds of crime.

She mentioned 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 world jewelry enterprise, buying and selling in diamonds and antiques in nations together with Japan, Thailand and China, the prosecutor mentioned.

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

The court docket 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 mentioned 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 dwelling with a cinema and fitness center.

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

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

“That is quite a pay cheque,” the prosecutor informed 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.