Takeaway worker, 42, who lived above a Chinese restaurant before using £2bn of Bitcoin to rent a six-bed £17,000-a-month house in London faces jail over money laundering arrangement

When Jian Wen arrived in the UK with just ££5,979 to her name she took a job in a Chinese takeaway and the cheap basement bedsit below it.

But within weeks she had moved into a £5million six-bedroom house yards from Hampstead Heath, was sending son to a the prestigious £6,000-a-term Heathside prep, driving a new Mercedes and doing her shopping in Harrods. 

No expense was spared as she jetted to Germany, Rome, Zurich, Norway, Thailand, China, Japan where she saw the sights under the guise of a jewellery business owner trading in diamonds and antiques.

The pair travelled across Europe together selling Bitcoin to buy expensive jewellery including watches worth up to £70,000 from Van Cleef and Arpels in Switzerland. Wen then bought two flats in Dubai for more than £500,000 and began looking at bidding for a £10m 18th century Tuscan villa with views to the coast.

But it was only when she tried to acquire a £23million Hampstead mansion, that alarm bells rang in the UK.  

Now police have linked Wen’s accounts to £3.4billion in the cryptocurrency, which she was helping a fugitive to launder. Piles of cash were found in her home and she is now facing jail.

The extraordinary story of her life at the heart of one of Britain’s biggest Bitcoin seizure can be told after a five-year probe has ended in her conviction for money laundering.

The 42-year-old acted as a front for a £5billion racket masterminded by Yadi Zhang, also known as Zhimin Qian, who fled to the UK in 2017 after ripping off 128,000 investors in China. 

Qian, who employed her as his live-in PA after a meeting at the five-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, has since vanished. Wen had insisted she had no idea the Bitcoin came from the proceeds of fraud and claimed she had been duped by Qian.

Jian Wen (pictured) was found with Bitcoin wallets worth more than £2billion. She was convicted of a crime linked to money laundering

Wen was living in a basement room under a Chinese takeaway in Abbey Wood, south-east London. But within weeks was living in this  fabulous six-bedroom house in Hampstead Heath, paying £17,000 a month in rent, in September 2017.

It was only when she she tried to buy a string of multi-million pound mansions like this one in London but struggled to pass money-laundering checks, and her claims that she had earned millions mining Bitcoin were not believed

Piles of cash were found by police during searches connected to Jian Wen. She now faces being sent to prison

Jian Wen barely had £5,000 to her name when she arrived in Britain to work in a London Chinese takeaway. 

But within weeks of meeting a mysterious benefactor in 2016, she was living the lifestyle of a Bitcoin billionaire building a global property empire.

Wen, 42, acted as a front for Zhimin Qian, who fled to the UK from China in 2017, after ripping off more than 128,000 investors in a wealth management swindle.

Qian – which means money in Chinese – flew to the UK in 2017 using a bogus St Kitts and Nevis passport in the name Yadi Zhang.

Wen arrived here in 2007 and lived modestly in Leeds between 2011 and 2017 before working at a Chinese takeaway in a deprived area of south east London.

Soon afterwards she moved in with Qian to a fabulous six-bedroom house in Hampstead Heath, paying £17,000 a month in rent, in September 2017.

Wen drove around in a Mercedes and flew her son over from China 18 months later to attend a private school.

Qian fled after police raided the Hamsptead property known the Manor House and seized a safety desposit box containing digitial wallets holding more than £1.4 billion worth of Bitcoin.

Wen denied but was convicted by a jury at Southwark Crown Court of one charge of entering or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement between October 2017 and January 2022.

Wen poses at the Lindt museum in Zurich on one of her trips to Europe. She claimed it was to buy items for a jewellery business

Wen jetted across Europe, including to Germany. She denied knowing she was involved in money laundering and said she was lied to

Jian went to Norway on business too. It was an incredible transformation for a woman who had been living above or below Chinese takeaways for years

The jury failed to reach verdicts on two further money laundering charges and the prosecution today announced Wen would not be retried on those charges.

Wen had insisted she had no idea the Bitcoin came from the proceeds of fraud and claimed she had been duped by Qian.

She said she helped Qian run a jewellery business which had branches in Singapore, Malaysia and China.

Judge Sally-Ann Hales, KC, remanded Wen in custody ahead of sentence on 10 May.

Prosecutor Gillian Jones KC earlier told jurors: ‘Miss Wen does not dispute that she dealt with the Bitcoin on behalf of Miss Zhang as alleged by the prosecution.

‘The question you will have to answer in respect of each count is in fact a simple one, whether Miss Wen either knew or suspected that she was dealing with the proceeds of crime when she was dealing with that Bitcoin.

‘The prosecution say the evidence reveals that Miss Wen became Yadi Zhang’s trusted partner.

‘She chose to ignore the concerns raised and warnings given over the source of the funds.

‘No doubt because the defendant was paid handsomely for the role she played, transforming almost overnight the circumstances in which she lived.

‘As to income, records held by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, show that the defendant between 2015 and 2017 filed self-assessment tax returns.

‘In the tax year 2015/2016 she declared gross earnings from working at a Chinese takeaway in the sum of £12,800.

‘In 2016/2017 she declared income from working for APAC Sourcing Limited, a company which sources products from China in the sum of £5,979.

‘There is no record either by way of self-assessment tax returns or PAYE of the defendant receiving any income in the tax years 2017/2018 or 2018/2019, when she first appears to have been working with Miss Zhang.’

The pair travelled across Europe together selling Bitcoin to buy expensive jewellery including watches worth up to £70,000 from Van Cleef and Arpels in Switzerland.

Ms Jones said: ‘The defendant went on to travel extensively both nationally and internationally either by herself or together with Miss Zhang.

‘When travelling in company with Miss Zhang countries which had an extradition treaty with China were avoided.

‘During those trips, Bitcoin was sold, and fine jewellery purchased, and we can see in communications that property in Europe was considered for purchase.

‘You will see in photos found on mobile phones that they never appear in photos together.

‘It appears that this was one of Miss Zhang’s requirements, no doubt to prevent the risk of her being tracked down through Miss Wen.’

Wen was instructed by Zhang to buy high value properties in London with the Bitcoin, including a seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion with a swimming pool for £23.5m and a £12.5m eight-bedroom home with a cinema and gym.

But the sales did not go ahead as the source of the currency could not be verified.

Wen was arrested in the summer of 2021 after officers raided her home.

Multiple devices were seized including a safety deposit box containing digital wallets including more than 61,000 Bitcoin worth £1.4 billion

‘To legitimately mine the Bitcoin seized in this investigation, 61,000 BTC, you would have to use and pay for roughly the same amount of electricity as that required to power 25,000 domestic households for a year – that’s the size of a town,’ said Ms Jones.

Zhang fled the UK after police raided her address and her whereabouts is currently unknown.

Following her arrest Wen initially claimed the Bitcoin had been mined before claiming it was a ‘love present’ from Zhang.

Ms Jones told the jury: ‘That is quite a pay cheque. You are going to have to look carefully at the circumstances of that purported gift.

‘A gesture by a very generous benefactor pleased with the care and assistance provided, or a device or sham to create an air of legitimacy as to the source of funds when Miss Wen attempted to purchase high value property on behalf of Miss Zhang.’

Wen, of Hampstead, denied but was convicted of one charge of entering or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement.

The two remaining charges were dropped by the prosecution.