A Chinese woman who masterminded a multibillion-dollar bitcoin scam and evaded authorities for years has been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in jail by a UK court.

Nicknamed the “goddess of wealth”, 47-year-old Zhimin Qian was accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded around 128,000 people in China between 2014 and 2017.

It raised billions of dollars, much of which was converted to bitcoin.

After she came to the UK and during a multiyear investigation where she evaded capture, British police seized 61,000 bitcoin worth more than £5 billion ($11.6b), believed to be a record in cryptocurrency-related crime.

She was arrested in the northern English city of York in 2024.

Qian, who pleaded guilty to possessing and transfering criminal property in September, appeared emotional as she received the sentence at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Her crimes were highly sophisticated and required careful planning, Judge Sally-Ann Hales told the court on Tuesday (local time).

“Your motive was one of pure greed,” Hales told Qian.

Qian “accepts” her conviction, her lawyer Roger Sahota said in a statement after the sentencing.

“She never set out to commit fraud but recognises her investment schemes were fraudulent and misled those who trusted her,” the statement said.

“She is deeply sorry for the distress suffered by investors and hopes some good endures from the wealth her work created.”

A Malaysian accomplice, Seng Hok Ling, also 47, was jailed at the same court for four years and 11 months after he pleaded guilty to one count of transferring criminal property.

After the sentencing, the Metropolitan Police’s head of economic and cybercrime command, Will Lyne, said the seven-year investigation was one of the “largest and most complex” the force had ever undertaken and required collaboration with multiple sides, including Chinese law enforcement.

Lavish living

Following scrutiny from Chinese authorities, Qian – also known as Yadi Zhang – fled her home country in 2017 and came to Britain. The court heard that she evaded UK authorities for around six years.

She travelled across Europe, staying in upscale hotels and buying jewellery including two watches worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the court heard.

With the help of an accomplice, Jian Wen, she rented a lavish London property and claimed to run a successful jewellery business.

Police surveillance of Qian’s co-defendant Ling eventually led to her arrest in April 2024.

Wen was jailed last year for six years and eight months over her role in the scheme.

Details of a compensation scheme for victims proposed by British authorities are still being thrashed out in London’s High Court in civil proceedings, where more than 1300 alleged victims have come forward, according to sources close to the case.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP that Chinese and British law enforcement agencies were “cooperating on cross-border fugitive and asset recovery” in the case.

- Agence France-Presse