A guy from Derbyshire just pleaded guilty for helping launder billions of pounds through a Bitcoin scheme that affected more than 128,000 victims in China. Hok Seng Ling, 46, admitted he transferred criminal property in the form of cryptocurrency.
The Metropolitan Police grabbed 61,000 Bitcoin from the main player in this whole mess, a Chinese national named Zhimin Qian who also goes by Yadi Zhang. At current prices, that stash is worth over £5 billion , which is an absolutely staggering amount of money to seize in one go.
Here’s how this whole thing went down:Between 2014 and 2017, Qian ran a massive fraud operation in China that defrauded over 128,000 people. She converted all that stolen money into Bitcoin, then fled China using fake documents and ended up in the UK. Once she got here, she tried to launder the money by buying property with help from accomplices.
The Met had been watching Ling, who lives in Derbyshire, and that surveillance led them to discover Qian was hiding out in Scotland and later York. When they arrested both of them in April 2024, they found encrypted devices, cash, gold, and more cryptocurrency. By July 2025, those additional assets were valued at £11 million on top of the Bitcoin haul.
What makes this case particularly significant is the international cooperation involved. The Met worked closely with Chinese law enforcement to prove where the cryptocurrency originally came from and establish that it was definitely proceeds from crime.
Conclusion
A Derbyshire man pleaded guilty in a £5.5B Bitcoin laundering case tied to 128,000 Chinese victims. The Met seized 61,000 BTC, cash, and gold-one of the largest global crypto crime busts ever.
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