Mr Wen, 42, has tried to buy property in London, including a £23.5m seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion with a pool and a £12.5m home with a cinema and gym.
by Henry Vaughan, domestic affairs correspondent and feature writer Henry Vaughan
Friday 24 May 2024 14:49 UK
A former Chinese takeaway worker convicted of money laundering after police seized more than £3 billion worth of Bitcoin has been jailed for more than six years.
Jian Wen, 42, attracted police attention for trying to buy some of London's most expensive properties, including a seven-bedroom £23.5million Hampstead mansion with a pool and a nearby £12.5million home with a cinema and gym.
The raid led to the discovery of more than 61,000 bitcoins in a digital wallet, resulting in the largest cryptocurrency seizure in UK history.
At the time, the cryptocurrency was worth £1.4 billion, but its value has now risen to more than £3 billion, while there are still 23,308 bitcoins in circulation linked to the investigation, currently worth more than £1 billion.
The bitcoins are said to have come from a £5 billion investment fraud carried out in China between 2014 and 2017.
Wen was not involved in the fraud but allegedly acted as a “front person” to hide the source of the funds, some of which were used to buy cryptocurrency that was smuggled out of China on a laptop.
She was convicted last month at a retrial at Southwark Crown Court of money laundering charges relating to 150 bitcoin, currently worth around £8 million, between October 2017 and January 2022.
Wen was today sentenced to six years and eight months by Judge Sally Ann Hales KC, who told him: “I have no doubt you came to enjoy the finer things in life.
“The evidence shows that you, and to some extent your family, were generously compensated for your services.”
The court heard that Wen, who has been held as a category A prisoner since March 3, 2022, plans to appeal against his conviction.
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Mark Harries KC, defending, said she was “a victim long before she became a criminal” and “without a doubt she was deceived and taken advantage of by the alleged mastermind behind this crime.”
Harries said she had risen from “the poorest of backgrounds” to work and live in a “sleazy Chinese restaurant” and live a “life of luxury” thanks to her Bitcoin earnings.
Ms Wen lives in a £5 million, six-bedroom house near Hampstead Heath with a rent of £17,000, travelled the world and spent tens of thousands of pounds on designer clothes and shoes at Harrods.
The court heard she drove a £25,000 E-Class Mercedes and sent her son to Heathside Prep School, which costs £6,000 a term.
She has bought two apartments in Dubai for more than £500,000 and considered buying an 18th-century Tuscan villa with sea views for £10 million.
However, attempts to buy millions of pounds worth of property in London triggered anti-money laundering checks and none of the purchases went through because they were unable to explain the origins of the bitcoin.
Ms Wen had declared an income of just £5,979 in 2016/17 but was unable to explain the source of her funds, leading police to first search her home on 31 October 2018.
She acknowledged being involved in some of the cryptocurrency transactions but said she did not know or suspect they were the proceeds of crime.
The court heard that the bitcoins were converted into fiat currency and loaded onto black prepaid cards which could be used anywhere in the world.
Wen, who has degrees in law and business administration, was acquitted of a series of other money laundering charges. Harries said Wen initially wanted to improve life for himself and his son through legal means.
He said she was a “middleman” whose “menial job was to press a button for Bitcoin transactions” and was “generally unaware of the extent of the criminal activity she was involved in.”
But Gillian Jones KC, prosecuting, said Wen was motivated by “greed” and his own “financial gain”, not by “coercion, intimidation or exploitation”.
