A Chinese takeaway worker who had 61,000 bitcoins worth $1.8 billion seized by police has been found guilty of money laundering.

Wen Jian will be sentenced in May. Crown Prosecution Service

• Jian Wen was found guilty of money laundering by a London court on Wednesday.

• In 2021, police seized 61,000 bitcoins from digital wallets linked to the Chinese takeaway worker.

• Wen converted crypto into cash and other assets on behalf of an international fraudster.

Former Chinese takeaway worker convicted of money laundering offense after police discovered she had converted bitcoin worth billions in cash and expensive items including jewelry and properties in Dubai.

Jian Wen, 42, was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court in London on Wednesday. the United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.

The case unfolded after police seized 61,000 bitcoins from digital wallets linked to Wen in 2021. The crypto haul, then worth £1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) and would now be valued at $3.8 billion, the CPS said.

Prosecutors said Wen helped an international fraudster still at large hide bitcoin, which was initially stolen from nearly 130,000 Chinese investors between 2014 and 2017. Wen was not believed to have been involved in that initial fraud.

Before meeting the woman she describes as her “employer”, Wen lived above a Chinese restaurant in Leeds.

In 2017, she began converting the stolen bitcoin into cash, jewelry and two properties in Dubai worth more than £500,000 ($640,000), the court heard.

Money seized by police from Jian Wen’s property.CPS

Wen also rented a six-bedroom property in north London for around £17,000 ($20,000) a month and paid for his son to leave China to attend a private school in the UK.

Police intervened when Wen tried to buy several properties in London but struggled to convert his bitcoin into cash and meet banks’ anti-money laundering compliance checks, the CPS said.

When challenged, the woman said she had legitimately made money from bitcoin mining, and later claimed her employer had given her 3,000 bitcoins, worth approximately £15 million.

“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used by organized criminals to hide and transfer assets, so that fraudsters can reap the benefits of their criminal conduct,” said Chief Prosecutor Andrew Penhale in A press release. “This case, which concerns the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the UK, illustrates the scale of the criminal proceeds available to these fraudsters.”

Adrian Foster, another chief prosecutor, added that the CPS had worked with police to obtain freezing orders to preserve the seized cryptocurrency.

“A civil recovery investigation led by the CPS is underway to establish that the frozen cryptocurrency is criminal property and seek its confiscation,” he said.

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Wen is scheduled to be sentenced on May 10.

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