UK Metropolitan Police seizes over 260 billion yen worth of Bitcoin due to huge Chinese investment scam = FT

Bitcoin seizure case

It has been revealed that the London Metropolitan Police has seized over 1.4 billion pounds (260 billion yen) worth of crypto assets (virtual currency) Bitcoin. The Financial Times (FT) reported on January 31st.

The bitcoins were obtained through investment fraud in China between 2014 and 2017. The fact of the seizure was revealed at the trial of those involved on January 30th.

In 2018, British police seized four devices in this investment scam containing a total of more than 61,000 BTC (equivalent to 380 billion yen at current rates). Police only recovered all the bitcoins in July 2021, when the value of the seized bitcoins had increased to £1.4bn, the FT reported. It seems that decisions on how to use and process these Bitcoins are yet to be made.

The person who committed the investment fraud was a woman calling herself Yadi Zhang, whose real name is Zhimin Qian. She extorted her fiat currency from more than 128,000 investors, exchanged it for Bitcoin, and traveled from China to London in 2017 under a false identity.

Qian is currently on the run from the UK, and the trial for his alleged involvement in money laundering in the investment scam is still ongoing. This seizure is the largest in the world.

Other seizure cases

The seizure of large sums of cryptocurrencies by authorities attracts attention from investors as they may end up selling the stocks in question.

connection: US government plans to sell Bitcoin worth 17.8 billion yen related to Silk Road

On the 30th of last month, police authorities in the German state of Saxony announced that they had seized 50,000 BTC (equivalent to 320 billion yen) in January.

He explained that the bitcoins were purchased with profits from operating a pirated website. It said it was the largest seizure of Bitcoin by German law enforcement.

connection: German authorities seize Bitcoin worth 320 billion yen, largest in the country

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