This is the moment a Chinese fraudster involved in a record Bitcoin scam worth more than £5.5billion was snared by police – while in bed.
Today, Zhimin Qian, known as the ‘Bitcoin Queen’, has been sentenced to 11 years in jail after pulling off the biggest money laundering scam in British history.
Footage released after her sentencing today shows a shocked and stuttering Qian arrested for the record-breaking con while under bright red duvet covers.
Six years earlier, Qian was similarly lying in bed when police first encountered her in October 2018 while searching a property connected to money laundering.
But the Bitcoin billionaire managed to give police the slip after providing officers with a fake name and pretending to be bedbound, suffering from a brain and leg injury.
Over the next six years, the international fugitive enjoyed an extraordinary jet-set lifestyle while she hid in Britain after swindling 128,000 investors in a wealth management Ponzi scheme in China.
Qian called herself the ‘Goddess of Wealth’, but the loyal servants who helped her hide in Britain knew her simply as the ‘Lady Boss’.
The 47-year-old, whose surname means money in Chinese, hoped that her incredible stolen Bitcoin wealth would provide a gateway to the Royal Family in Britain.
From her rented manor house in Hampstead, Qian formulated plans to snap up a portfolio of million-pound mansions in the UK so she could meet dukes and duchesses, the Dalai Lama and the Pope.
Zhimin Qian, 47, was first encountered by police in October 2018 as they investigated links to money laundering but she managed to give officers the slip by providing a false name
A shocked and spluttering Qian was finally arrested her in bed for the £5.5billion crypto scam in April 2024 at the end of a six year police investigation
Qian hid in Britain during the pandemic, renting Airbnb homes in Scotland, Hampstead and York
In a diary, she wrote of her ambitions to rule a kingdom in Liberland, an unrecognised micronation on the Danube, where she hoped to build the biggest Buddhist temple in Europe.
The conwoman managed to evade authorities by using multiple aliases and passports to travel around the world on lavish shopping sprees, blowing more than £44,000 on diamond jewellery in Zurich, £90,000 in Harrods on designer clothing and buying watches worth £119,000 from Van Cleef & Arpels.
She rented a remote hideaway in Scotland, a house in York and a £5million mansion in Hampstead where she spent her time scheming in her bedroom while a retinue of domestic staff including a butler, housekeeper and driver catered for every whim.
Qian instructed staff to buy £500,000 apartments for her in Dubai and she looked into buying a £10million 18th century Tuscan villa with a sea view.
But her grandiose ambitions to rub shoulders with royals and the rich and famous was to prove her undoing after attempts to buy a £23.5million seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion with a swimming pool and a nearby £12.5million home with a cinema and gym triggered UK money laundering checks.
Her servant Jian Wen, who was making the purchases on her behalf, could not explain the source of the Bitcoin when asked by the authorities to explain where the purchase money was coming from.
Scotland Yard launched an investigation into the source of the money in 2018, eventually tracing it back to a wealth management swindle in China where Qian led a team of 83 fraudsters.
Qian held investment conferences in her homeland, posing in imperial robes to con victims promising returns of 300 per cent on their money.
In glossy videos, she used images of Britain to promote her bogus wealth management schemes.
She convinced Chinese government ministers, major businesses and ordinary householders to pump money into fraudulent pyramid schemes before fleeing to Britain with the money in 2017 using a false St Kitts and Nevis passport.
Fraudster Qian hid in Britain for more than six years after swindling 128,000 investors in a wealth management Ponzi scheme in China
Qian’s butler and fixer, Seng Hok Ling, was jailed for acquiring and possessing cryptocurrency
Qian’s attempts to buy a £12.5million home (pictured) in Hampstead, north London, triggered UK money laundering checks
Qian also rented this £17,000-a-month house in Hampstead, north London which her staff lived in while they tried to buy properties for her
Large bundles of cash were seized from her properties
For years Qian managed to remain on the run by relying on her illegal immigrant staff, who were forced to sign contracts saying they would not open the front door without her permission.
But police managed to locate her after her servant Wen was convicted in March 2024, forcing Qian to rely on her butler Seng Hok Ling as her new fixer.
Officers traced a Bitcoin transfer to Ling from a long-dormant cryptocurrency wallet which led them to the fraudster.
Weeks later, officers followed Ling to his mistress’s rented home in York where Qian was found lying in bed.
The defendant told police Chinese authorities had made false allegations against her and attempted to explain her lavish spending by claiming that she would die soon, and it was her ‘last chance to spend money’.
But police discovered sewn into a pair of her jogging bottoms was a key to a cryptocurrency wallet worth approximately £6.6million at the time.
In the biggest criminal seizure in the world, officers found seven cryptocurrency wallets worth more than £5.5billion in total.
Now the UK Government is battling in the High Court to keep the huge sum after cheated investors sought to get back the stolen 40billion in Chinese currency.
Today, Ling, 47, was jailed for four years and 11 months for transferring criminal property.
Qian was jailed for 11 years and eight months after pleading guilty to money laundering, acquiring and possessing criminal property.
Judge Sally Ann Hales, KC, told Qian: ‘You were the architect of this offending from the inception to its conclusion, the scale of your money laundering is unprecedented.
‘Your motivation was one of pure greed, you left China without a thought of the people whose investments you had stolen and enjoyed, for a period of time, a lavish lifestyle.
‘You lied and schemed, all the while seeking to benefit yourself.’
Scotland Yard now hopes the force will be able to keep some of the proceeds of crime to tackle offending in London.
Will Lyne, the Met’s Head of Economic and Cybercrime Command, said: ‘There is no doubt this is one of the largest and most complex economic crime investigations we have ever undertaken.’
Security Minister, Dan Jarvis, said: ‘Money laundering isn’t just against the law; it puts real people at risk and lines the pockets of criminals.
‘This tough prison sentence should make anyone thinking of getting involved in these crimes think twice. My thanks go to the Metropolitan Police and CPS for their vital work ensuring justice was served.
‘This government is going to keep working side by side with our partners to recover stolen money and help make our streets safer for everyone.’