Key Points
- A woman has been sentenced to jail in the UK for laundering Bitcoin linked to a billion-dollar fraud scheme.
- The laundered Bitcoin, worth around $10.4 million, was part of a larger operation involving 61,000 BTC.
The Southwark Crown Court in London has handed down a prison sentence to a woman involved in a money laundering operation using Bitcoin.
Criminal Activities and Sentencing
Jian Wen, a 42-year-old woman with dual UK and Chinese citizenship, has been sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. She was found guilty of laundering 150 Bitcoin, which is equivalent to approximately $10.4 million.
These laundered funds were part of a larger fraudulent scheme. In this operation, authorities confiscated 61,000 Bitcoin, valued at around $4.22 billion. This was part of an alleged fraud scheme worth $5.6 billion.
Claims and Accusations
Wen claimed that she laundered the funds for another Chinese woman between 2017 and 2022. She argued that this woman was the orchestrator of the entire operation. Wen also stated that she was unaware of the actual source of the funds. The court, however, did not accuse her of being involved in the larger fraud scheme. Before her involvement in this operation, Wen was working as a food delivery worker.
As of May 24, Bitcoin was trading at $69,077.30. The cryptocurrency saw a 3.04% increase, or a rise of $2,035, in the past 24 hours.
