{"id":464,"date":"2024-05-25T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/25\/chinese-takeaway-worker-jian-wen-jailed-for-money-laundering-after-3bn-bitcoin-seizure\/"},"modified":"2024-05-25T00:01:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T00:01:08","slug":"chinese-takeaway-worker-jian-wen-jailed-for-money-laundering-after-3bn-bitcoin-seizure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/25\/chinese-takeaway-worker-jian-wen-jailed-for-money-laundering-after-3bn-bitcoin-seizure\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese takeaway worker Jian Wen jailed for money laundering after \u00a33bn Bitcoin seizure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A former Chinese takeaway worker found guilty of money laundering after police seized more than \u00a33bn worth of Bitcoin has been jailed for more than six years.<\/p>\n

Jian Wen, 42, came to the attention of police when she tried to buy some of London\u2019s most expensive properties, including a \u00a323.5m seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion with a swimming pool and a nearby \u00a312.5m home with a cinema and gym.<\/p>\n

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The investigation led to the UK\u2019s biggest-ever cryptocurrency seizure when more than 61,000 Bitcoin were discovered in digital wallets.<\/p>\n

The cryptocurrency was worth \u00a31.4bn at the time but its value has now risen to more than \u00a33bn, while 23,308 Bitcoin, now worth more than \u00a31bn, linked to the probe remains in circulation.<\/p>\n

The Bitcoin allegedly came from a \u00a35bn investment scam carried out in China between 2014 and 2017.<\/p>\n

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Wen was not involved in the fraud but was said to have acted as a \u201cfront person\u201d to help disguise the source of the money, some of which had been used to buy cryptocurrency and smuggled out of China on laptops.<\/p>\n

She was found guilty of one count of money laundering, relating to 150 Bitcoin, now worth nearly \u00a38m, between October 2017 and January 2022 last month following a retrial at Southwark Crown Court.<\/p>\n

Wen was jailed for six years and eight months today by Judge Sally-Ann Hales KC, who told her: \u201cI am in no doubt you came to enjoy the better things in life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence showed you and, to some extent, members of your family were generously rewarded for your service.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court heard Wen, who has been in custody as a Category A prisoner since 3 March 2022, plans to appeal the conviction.<\/p>\n

Mark Harries KC, defending, said she \u201cwas a victim long before she became a criminal\u201d and \u201cwas undoubtedly duped and used\u201d by the alleged mastermind of the operation.<\/p>\n

Mr Harries said she was \u201cplucked from the most humble of backgrounds\u201d, working and living in \u201cshabby Chinese restaurants\u201d into a \u201clifestyle of luxury\u201d funded by the Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

Wen lived in a \u00a35m six-bedroom house rented for \u00a317,000 a month near Hampstead Heath and travelled the world, spending tens of thousands of pounds on designer clothes and shoes in Harrods.<\/p>\n

She drove a \u00a325,000 E-Class Mercedes and sent her son to the \u00a36,000-a-term Heathside preparatory school, the court heard.<\/p>\n

She bought two apartments in Dubai for more than \u00a3500,000 and looked into buying a \u00a310m 18th century Tuscan villa with a sea view.<\/p>\n

But efforts to buy multimillion-pound properties in London triggered anti-money laundering checks and none of the purchases went ahead because the source of the Bitcoin could not be explained.<\/p>\n

Wen, who had declared an income of just \u00a35,979 in the 2016\/17 financial year, could not explain the source of the funds and police first raided her home on 31 October 2018.<\/p>\n

She accepted she was involved in an arrangement dealing with some of the cryptocurrency but said she did not know or suspect it was from the proceeds of crime.<\/p>\n

The court heard that once the Bitcoin had been converted into fiat currency loaded on to black prepaid cards which could be used anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

Wen, who has a diploma in law and a business degree, was acquitted of a string of other money laundering charges and Mr Harries said she had wanted to make her and her son\u2019s lives better, initially by legitimate means.<\/p>\n

She was the \u201cconduit\u201d, with \u201cher simple task the pressing of buttons for transactions of Bitcoin\u201d and she had a \u201climited awareness of the extent of the criminal activity to which she had leant herself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But prosecutor Gillian Jones KC said Wen was motivated by \u201cgreed\u201d and her own \u201cfinancial gain\u201d not subjected to \u201ccoercion, intimidation or exploitation\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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