Qian Zhimin, the main culprit in the 60,000 Bitcoin money laundering case, was sentenced to 6 years in prison in the first instance

On May 24th, the Southwark Crown Court in London ruled in the second trial that 42-year-old Chinese national Qian Zhimin was guilty of money laundering and will serve six years and eight months in prison. Previously, Qian Zhimin had attempted to purchase multiple luxury homes in London, including a 23.5 million pound seven-bedroom mansion in Hampstead and a 12.5 million pound mansion with a private cinema and gym, which caught the attention of the police. An investigation found over 61,000 bitcoins worth more than 3 billion pounds in a digital wallet, setting a record for the highest amount of cryptocurrency seized in the UK. Currently, 23,300 bitcoins worth over 1 billion pounds are still in circulation. It is said that these bitcoins came from a 5 billion pound investment fraud case in China between 2014 and 2017, where the funds were transferred overseas and used to purchase cryptocurrency. Qian Zhimin did not directly participate in the fraud, but played a "front desk" role in helping to disguise the source of the laundered funds.