Ex-Takeout Driver Ordered to Repay $3.8 Million After Bitcoin Money Laundering Conviction

Jian Wen, a former British takeaway employee convicted of Bitcoin laundering, should pay greater than $3.78 million (£3.1 million) or face an additional seven years in jail.

The order is a part of a confiscation order following a conviction for cash laundering. Wen, 42, was beforehand sentenced to 6 years and eight months in jail at Southwark Crown Court docket after being linked to a cryptocurrency pockets containing 150 Bitcoin – price nearly $15 million at as we speak’s costs.

“Prosecutors advised the court docket that the sheer measurement of the seized Bitcoin, the dearth of any official proof as to the way it was obtained, all level to it being felony property,” reads a latest announcement from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The CPS didn’t instantly reply to a request for additional remark from Declutter.

The information comes after Britain’s Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) and police got extra powers to ‘seize, freeze and destroy’ cryptocurrency utilized by criminals final 12 months.

Crypto crime has turn into a rising concern for Britain. A report printed in August 2024 discovered that as a lot as $5.1 billion price of unlawful crypto transactions are linked to the nation yearly.

The Metropolitan Police seized Bitcoin wallets with an preliminary estimated worth of greater than £300 million ($364.75 million) in an investigation involving Wen, saying there was no official clarification for the presence of the funds.

In response to police, Wen purchased two properties in Dubai price greater than £500,000 in 2019. She claimed to have labored for a Chinese language nationwide who requested her to make the purchases and denied that the cash was the proceeds of crime.

The court docket discovered that Wen had benefited £3,500,113 from felony conduct, with accessible property price £3,126,572. She should pay this quantity inside three months or face a doable jail sentence of seven years on prime of her sentence of six years and eight months. If additional property are found, she’s going to stay chargeable for the distinction between the overall payout and the present forfeiture order.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.