Chinese Crypto Queen Qian Zhimin Sentenced To 11 Years

Qian Zhimin, dubbed the “Chinese Crypto Queen,” has been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison in the UK for money laundering billions stolen from Chinese pensioners that she funneled into Bitcoin.

Judge Sally-Ann Hales told Southwark Crown Court that Qian had masterminded the scheme “from its inception to its conclusion,” calling her motive “one of pure greed.”

The 44-year-old raised more than £4.2 billion from over 120,000 investors, claiming her company developed health tech and mined crypto, a front police say concealed a vast fraud. The stash is now worth about £5 billion.

Zhimin fled China in 2017 as police began investigating and settled in a £17,000 ($22,700)-a-month Hampstead Heath mansion under a fake identity. A subsequent police raid uncovered tens of thousands of Bitcoin in what is believed to be the UK’s largest crypto seizure.

“The more information we got about her involvement… that she was actually the leader of the fraud, not just a lower down member… it became obvious that yes she’s very clever, she’s very switched on, very manipulative, able to persuade a lot of people,” Detective Constable Joe Ryan from the Metropolitan Police Service said.

Zhimin Fled To The UK After Chinese Police Launched An Investigation

Qian fled to the UK using a fake passport. She posed as a wealthy antiques and diamond heiress when seeking to rent the Hampstead Heath mansion. She then hired a former takeaway worker by the name of Wen Jian as her personal assistant, who she would ask to trade crypto into other assets such as cash and property.

The house that Zhimin had rented in Hampstead Heath (Source: Metropolitan Police)

It was during a search for assets that could be bought with the stolen Bitcoin that Zhimin made it onto authorities’ radar. It was an attempted purchase of a large property in Totteridge Common that was flagged when Jian failed to account for her boss’s wealth. 

That triggered a police investigation, and a raid on Qian’s Hampstead property. It led to what is believed to have been the largest crypto seizure in the UK’s history, with police finding hard drives and laptops that stored tens of thousands of Bitcoin.

It was then that authorities concluded that Zhimin was the mastermind behind the scam. 

Zhimin Promised Victims They’d Get Rich ‘Lying Down’

Qian had told her investors that they could “get rich by lying down. 

According to her assistant, who appeared at her own trial last year and was sentenced to six years for money laundering, Qian had spent most of her days lying in bed, shopping online, and gaming. 

Cryptoqueen BUSTED: Chinese fraudster Zhimin Qian sentenced to 11+ years after UK seizes £5B+ in Bitcoin.

She had a hidden treasure map to her wallets. pic.twitter.com/77qkgG8ukU

— ₿ ♛ (@BaylenLatona) November 11, 2025

Still, she had drawn up a six-year plan for her next cons, with her diary notes outlining plans to found a national bank, buy a Swedish castle, and even ingratiate herself to a British duke. 

To cap it all, Qian aimed to become the queen of Liberland, an unrecognized microstate on the Croatian-Serbian border, by 2020.

Victims Still Hope For Some Cash Back

Victims of her scheme have said they hope to get at least some of their cash back from the UK authorities. 

“If we can gather all the evidence together, we hope the UK government, the Crown Prosecution Service and the High Court can show compassion,” a victim called Mr Yu told the BBC. “Because now, it’s only that haul of Bitcoin [cryptocurrency] that can return us a little bit of what we lost.”

Yu and his wife had initially invested 60,000 yuan (£6,295) each after they were told they would receive a 200% profit over 2.5 years. 

Qian drip-fed the investors some returns in the early days to convince them the project was legitimate, prompting Yu and his wife to take out loans to invest still more in her fraudulent schemes.

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