Woman found with £2B in Bitcoin jailed | Hacker News Reader

Woman found with £2B in Bitcoin jailed

bbc.co.uk

18 pointsuser2018012019 comments

What is "a crime linked to money laundering"? Was she convicted just of money laundering or had additional charges?

She claimed that she mined the Bitcoin. Did the prosecution find that she obtained it another way? If so which way?

Based on the article linked below, it seems that the money come from criminal activity:

> Wen tried to buy a string of expensive houses in London, but struggled to pass money-laundering checks and her claims she had earned millions legitimately mining Bitcoin were not believed.

> CPS chief crown prosecutor [..] said [...] cryptocurrencies "are increasingly being used by organised criminals to disguise and transfer assets [...]".

which is indeed money laundering, not tax evasion.

Sure, but what exactly was the criminal activity? Is the claim that she (or her close associates) engaged in it herself, or that she was acting purely as a launderer for others?

More info here in links provided in sibling posts. From this one https://archive.ph/mTPuL,:

> Wen was ultimately arrested and convicted of one count of money laundering after two trials and acquittals on 10 other counts. She was not accused of involvement in the original alleged China fraud.

Clicking through the "More on this story" link, we find

> On Monday she was convicted of entering into or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement.

Which sounds like she was facilitating money laundering without holding any criminal property herself. For a more comprehensive explanation, see e.g. https://www.jmw.co.uk/blog/business-money-laundering/three-m...

It sounds like what the US often calls "conspiracy to ...".

Does this mean she wasn't the owner of those £2B in bitcoins? So they didn't caught the billionaire in question, they caught someone that was working for him or her

I think the article was pretty clear that the woman caught was a front for the other woman.

I didn't find it clear from either article that there was another "woman" behind the one that was caught (as opposed to any number of individuals of any gender)

Sorry, there was more info in the articles linked in the discussion. This one, in particular:

https://archive.ph/mTPuL

from this thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40511214

Feels like this short article could have included the context that this was the associate (valet, of sorts) for Zhimin Qian the 'crypto queen'.

KiraTV did a video on her : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8zu1622TH4

The accusations are all about money laundering, but is there any information about where the money/bitcoin actually came from?

Sky has more background https://news.sky.com/story/bitcoin-worth-1-4bn-seized-after-...

Looks like it's from some investment fraud

https://www.ft.com/content/60dd70f3-04f7-48fe-94ba-a34969ad7...

What measures do we have to prove someone mined the bitcoin personally? Similar to how one can say they sold a bunch of copper that they dug out of the ground when really they were paid in copper by illegal sources.

The block's "coinbase" mints the reward coins sends it to an address. Put that BTC into one of those privacy coins and back out. Where's the connection to the block it was mined from? Gotta be some fingerprints somewhere.

And...

> it has since increased to around £3.4bn.

> What measures do we have to prove someone mined the bitcoin personally?

A room filled with ASICs and a huge electricity bill or the rooftop covered with solar panels?

Longer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68620253

Even assuming that bitcoins are indeed were directly mined, it's ridiculous how asymmetrical the modern world is about some things:

"I (personally) issued counterfeit bills and was able to purchase real estate with them" - that's a federal crime

"I (personally) issued a cryptographically signed statement that I own quadrillions of Satoshi bills and was able to purchase real estate with it" - that's perfectly legal

I do not understand, was the 2B hers or was she just laundering other people's coin ?

If it was hers, why seize the full amount ? Is this another case of not allowing a serf not joining an exclusive club ?

Yes if laundering the Jail sentence seems fine, but the seizure ? I do nor know.

“Found”

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