Zhimin Qian dreamed that the Dalai Lama would anoint her as an incarnate goddess and become Queen of Liberland, an unrecognized microstate located on the Danube River, where she would build the largest Buddhist temple in Europe.
Qian was on the run from Beijing authorities, and she had the money to believe such crazy dreams could become a reality: huge sums of Bitcoin from a £5bn investment scam she allegedly ran in China, defrauding more than 128,000 people.
Qian, 45, was at the center of a money laundering trial in London, which ended this week with the conviction of her “carer and helper” Jian Wen.
Mark Harris QC, Wayne's barrister, told the jury at Southwark Crown Court: “The specter of Qian has haunted this trial from the beginning to the end.”
Harris described Qian – who was referred to in court by a nickname, Yadi Zhang – as a “supervillain” and told the jury she was a “master of deception” and indulged in “skillful manipulation”.
Wen and Qian were encountered by London police during a police raid on a Hampstead mansion in 2018. They were investigating a suspicious and botched property purchase made by Wen. They seized devices containing 61,000 bitcoins – worth more than £3 billion at today's prices – one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures law enforcement has found anywhere.
Wynn was eventually arrested and convicted of money laundering after two trials and acquitted on 10 other charges. She has not been accused of involvement in the original alleged fraud in China.
But Qian remains at large and British police believe she has left the UK. It is subject to an Interpol Red Notice. Her whereabouts are still unknown.
Qian was born on September 4, 1978. Little is known about her life before she ran a Chinese company called Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic Technology, which was launched in March 2014.
Lantian Jirui sold investment products, promising returns of up to 300 percent, according to British court documents. She also claimed to have a side business mining Bitcoin.
Chinese court documents said Qian's marketing extended to leasing the scenic Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, a diplomatic compound where the country's leaders host foreign dignitaries, to host conferences to promote Lantian Jirui products.
Potential investors were also taken to Lantian Gerui's Bitcoin mining site. British court documents alleged that the company “used nearly outdated software [mining] “The equipment is just a front to deceive potential investors.”
Eventually, Qian allegedly transferred her investors' money to an account at cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, converted it into bitcoin and then fled, the jury in Wen's trial heard.
Qian's name was hidden from Lantian Gerui's papers.
Shortly after its founding, Qian asked her employee, Jiang Tao Ren, to become her legal representative for three years, Ren told a Tianjin court in 2018.
He was offered a one-off bonus of £111,000, on top of his monthly salary of £3,300, a Tianjin court heard. His name was also used to open Huobi's account, but he insisted that all the money was managed by Qian.
Ren told the court that Qian assured him that if the company got into trouble, it would spare him any legal difficulties.
But in July 2017, after the investigation began in China, she fled the country with a black Lenovo laptop. It contained a cryptocurrency wallet worth billions of pounds worth of Bitcoin transferred from Ren's Huobi account.
The Tianjin Public Security Bureau announced in 2019 that local authorities had arrested 50 suspects, including Ren, on fraud charges related to Lantian Jirui. A total of 14 Chinese nationals have been tried and convicted in China, according to British court documents.
The Chinese Ministry of Public Security did not respond to a request for comment. The Tianjin Public Security Bureau could not be reached for comment.
Qian's escape was aided by several individuals, including a Chinese national named Yadi Zhang, according to British court documents.
She used Zhang's name to obtain a St. Kitts and Nevis passport in July 2017. A month later, Qian obtained a fake Myanmar passport under the name Nan Yin, and used these identities to evade Chinese authorities.
In September 2017, Qian flew from Laos to the United Kingdom on a St. Kitts and Nevis passport, and used Zhang's name when she met Wen a few days later at a London hotel.
For the next three years, Wen worked as Qian's assistant, helping her convert bitcoin into cash, property and jewellery, even as UK police were investigating their activities. Wen denied knowing anything about the alleged Chinese fraud.
Gillian Jones QC, acting for the Crown Prosecution Service, told the jury at her trial that Wen played the role of “the front person to keep Chang in the background”.
In 2018, during that time with Wen, Qian began writing a digital diary that was later confiscated by UK police. In it, Qian recorded her desire to be anointed by the Dalai Lama as a “goddess incarnate,” and her plans for the kingdom she would rule in Liberland, an unrecognized and uninhabited microstate of 7 square kilometers located on the Danube River between Croatia and Serbia. Qian's plans included building a Buddhist temple, infrastructure including an airport and port, and her crown and scepter worth £5 million.
Despite Qian's outlandish ambitions, Wen experienced that her life was surprisingly miserable. Qian said she had difficulty walking as a result of a previous car accident, and most days she spent about 20 hours in bed with her laptop, playing games, shopping and exchanging bitcoin.
“She would have bad dreams and wake up screaming in the night,” Wayne told the court. “She's been in bed the whole time. How do you think she has a different name?”
Although the Metropolitan Police first searched Qian and Wayne's Hampstead mansion in October 2018, they did not realize that the devices they seized contained 61,000 bitcoins until mid-2021.
In July of that year, the police applied to the court for a warrant to retain the bitcoins seized from one of their devices. Qian's lawyer said at a hearing that she “grants ownership of the bitcoin over the devices,” adding: “My client has the right to the peaceful use of her bitcoin under human rights law,” according to British court documents.
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Where Qian herself was at that point is unclear. She repeatedly failed to attend interviews requested by the police. Wen told the court that she last spoke with Qian in October 2020.
The last time UK police saw Qian was during a raid in October 2018, when they confiscated her passport along with other items. At that time, they made a “practical decision” not to arrest Zhang or Wen, but rather confiscate the items to get a “fuller picture,” according to British court documents. The police returned Qian's passport the following March.
Now the full picture is known, the main question remains what will happen to the 61,000 bitcoins. CPS has commenced civil recovery proceedings in the Supreme Court. Usually half of the confiscated money goes to the police and the other half goes to the Home Office if no one else has a right to the assets.
Before this week's ruling in Wen's case, Detective Chief Inspector Jason Prince told reporters that Chinese authorities had not yet asked for the money back.
Additional reporting by Ewan Healy in London
