Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – A woman is suspected of converting Bitcoin into cash and property to hide fraudulent funds worth 5 billion pounds or the equivalent of IDR 100 trillion.
This money laundering action has gone to trial in a London court, England. Prosecutors said a woman named Wen Jian helped embezzle stolen money from 130,000 Chinese investors between 2014-2017.
Wen Jian is said to be one of the accomplices in a fraud scheme planned by a woman named Wen alias Zhang Yadi. After investigation, his real name was Qian Zhimin.
During the investigation process, British police confiscated a digital wallet holding 61,000 Bitcoins, quoted from Reuters, Thursday (21/3/2023).
This amount is the largest seizure of cryptocurrency by police officers worldwide. 61,000 Bitcoins were equivalent to 1.4 billion pounds when they were accessed by police in 2021.
Now the value is 3 billion pounds, according to prosecutors at Wen's trial.
Wen rejected the three charges against him of money laundering. He said he did not know that the Bitcoin he converted was stolen funds. Because Zhang told him that the assets were his personal assets.
Currently Zhang's whereabouts are still unknown.
Wen was found guilty of one charge earlier this week in a trial at Southwark Crown Court. The judge has not yet ruled on the other two charges.
Wen will be sentenced next month for one count of money laundering that has already been ruled out by a judge.
Prosecutor Gillian Jones said Zhang arrived in the UK in 2017 after Chinese authorities began investigating a fraud case involving him.
Zhang must immediately convert the stolen money into Bitcoin so it can be taken out of China. Then, in England he asked Wen to convert it back into cash.
Prosecutors said Wen should have known Zhang's money was illegal. Because, Zhang traveled to countries that have extradition agreements with China.
Wen answered that he only wanted to provide a better life for his child. Wen's lawyer, Mark Herries, described Zhang as a supervillain who continually lied to Wen.
“Zhang took advantage of Wen and then threw him away,” Harries said.
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(fab/fab)