Khaberni - At 47 years of age, Chinese national Chimin Qian faces a severe sentence of 11 years and 8 months in prison for her involvement in fraudulent activities that included the theft of 61,000 bitcoins valued at $7.3 billion, according to a report published by the tech site "Bleeping Computer".
This sentence comes after an investigation that lasted 7 years since her arrest in 2017, which confirmed her leadership of the fraudulent group that stole from more than 128,000 victims in China.
Sing Hok Ling, a 47-year-old resident of Matlock, Derbyshire, was also sentenced to 4 years and 11 months in prison for his role in this fraudulent scheme and his participation in laundering the stolen money.
The London police confirmed that Qian had converted some of the money she obtained into cash, jewelry, and other new digital currencies, before fleeing to the United States under a false name.
The UK authorities have seized the stolen currencies now valued at $7.3 billion, making this the largest seizure of cryptocurrencies in history, surpassing the United States' seizure of 94,000 bitcoins in 2022 valued at $3.6 billion.
Qian acquired the title of the Bitcoin Queen in 2014 when she started her fraudulent scheme, convincing 130,000 Chinese citizens to join a fraudulent network linked to her with the promise of achieving profits up to 300% on their original investment.
