Wen Jian was sentenced to nearly seven years for money laundering in a 61,000 BTC fraud case from 2014-2017.
Nearly seven years in prison has been imposed on Wen Jian, a Chinese woman named in the infamous 61,000 Bitcoin (BTC) fraud case, on charges of money laundering. The colossal sums involved in the incidents, which occurred between 2014 and 2017, have shook the cryptocurrency and blockchain communities.
Reuters reported that the defendant was accused of concealing funds that were allegedly misappropriated from approximately 130,000 Chinese investors between 2014 and 2017.
She received a six-year and eight-month prison sentence from a court in London for her involvement in the conversion of Bitcoin to currency and property valued at around $6.4 billion. Prosecutors assert that she was not implicated in the fundamental fraud, as another woman was identified as its mastermind.
Wen, according to prosecutor Gillian Jones, was the “front person” through which cash was converted to Bitcoin and back to cash out of China; she should have known that the funds were obtained unlawfully. Prosecutors allege that she rented a $5 million residence for $17,000 per month and purchased designer clothing worth thousands of pounds.
Mark Harries, Wen’s representative, stated that she was the victim of a proficient criminal supervillain who exploited and abandoned her due to her dependability and expendability.
Despite Wen’s assertion that she was merely striving to improve her son’s life, Judge Sally-Ann Hales concluded that she knew beyond a reasonable doubt that the woman was in possession of illicit funds.
“As the evidence demonstrated, you and, to a certain degree, your family members were amply compensated for your service.”
In 2021, in the course of their investigation into the incident, British police seized cryptocurrency purses containing over 61,000 Bitcoins valued at approximately $1.7 billion.
As a result of the surge in market adoption leading to a surge in the price of Bitcoin, the current value of the assets exceeds $3.8 billion. This currently stands as one of the most substantial seizures of Bitcoin in recorded history.
Wen was convicted on one count of the three charges of money laundering brought against him by the jury at Southwark Crown Court.
