A Chinese woman charged for her role in laundering the proceeds of a multi-billion dollar fraud scheme is now reportedly behind bars.
According to Reuters, Wen Jian was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison on Friday after jurors found her guilty of one count of money laundering in March.
Prosecutors say that Wen converted Bitcoin (BTC) into cash and property to hide the source of money that was purportedly stolen from nearly 130,000 investors in a $6.4 billion wealth scheme that took place in China between 2014 and 2017.
The scheme is believed to have been masterminded by another woman who fled to Britain in 2017 after Chinese authorities started their investigation. Wen allegedly served as the front person who helped convert the stolen funds into Bitcoin to take them out of China.
Wen denied the money laundering accusations, saying she did not have knowledge of criminality linked to Bitcoin. She claims she was just trying to give her son a better life, but prosecutors say she should have known that the money was illegally obtained.
Judge Sally-Ann Hales says there is no indication that Wen was involved in the underlying fraud, but reportedly told the 42-year-old that “no doubt that you knew” she was dealing with criminal property.
The case involves one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures by law enforcement in the world. In 2021, British police officers conducting investigations seized wallets with over 61,000 BTC valued at around $1.8 billion at the time. The confiscated BTC is now worth around $4.2 billion at Bitcoin’s current price of $69,227.61.
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