A former Chinese takeaway worker who was put on trial after police seized £1.4billion worth of bitcoin has told a jury she was “duped” by the woman who defrauded her of the money.
Jian Wen, 42, allegedly acted as a “front person” to help launder some of the profits from a £5bn investment scam carried out by Zimin Qian in China between 2014 and 2017.
Qian, which means money in Chinese, fled the UK after police raided the six-bedroom house the women had rented for more than £17,000 a month near Hampstead Heath in north-west London, a court heard.
Officers confiscated devices from the property, as well as a safe deposit box containing digital wallets containing more than 61,000 bitcoins, worth more than £1.4 billion, when police gained access to them in the summer of 2021.
Wynn is on trial at Southwark Crown Court, where she has denied three charges of money laundering, relating to three cryptocurrency wallets, between October 2017 and January 2022.
The women rented a £17,000-a-month house near Hampstead Heath. Image: Google Street View
She admitted she was involved in an arrangement involving cryptocurrency but told jurors: “I had no idea her bitcoin came from anything the prosecution accused me of. I had absolutely no idea.”
Wen told the jury “I have no idea where she is” after Qian, who came to the UK using the fake identity Yadi Zhang in her St Kitts and Nevis passport, disappeared a day before she was questioned by police on September 1. 2020.
“I think I was scammed,” she said. “I'm ashamed to say that.”
“We were close…but looking back now, I was taken advantage of,” Wen cried.
She told jurors she was working in a takeaway restaurant in south-east London when she first met Zhang after she applied to become her “butler”, thinking she was a businesswoman at an international jewelery and antiques company.
The seven-bedroom home was on the market for £23.5 million. Image: Google Street View
Prosecutors say Qian purchased cryptocurrency to take the fraud proceeds out of the country and needed to convert the bitcoin back into cash or “property, jewelry, or other items of high value.”
The court heard that the pair traveled extensively across Europe, selling bitcoin and buying luxury jewellery, including watches worth around £49,000 and £70,000 from Van Cleef & Arpels in Switzerland.
Wen has tried to buy properties in London, including a seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion with a pool, which was on the market for £23.5 million, and a £12.5 million eight-bedroom house with a cinema and gym.
But none of the purchases went ahead because the source of the bitcoin could not be explained, the court heard.
The trial continues
