In 2021, a former employee of the hotel business, Jian Wen, was detained and accused of money laundering in the UK while trying to buy a mansion worth $30 million with bitcoins. The real estate purchase deal did not take place, as Wen was unable to explain to law enforcement agencies the source of the funds.
After the search, the police confiscated 61,000 BTC from the woman. In March, Southwark Crown Court found Jian Wen guilty of money laundering using bitcoins by buying "multimillion-dollar real estate and jewelry." The court linked the origin of the funds to the fraudulent crypto investment scheme of the Chinese technology company Tianjin Lantian Gerui Electronic and its probable director Zhimin Qian.
According to court documents, crypto assets were seized from almost 130,000 Chinese investors between 2014 and 2017.
The victims of the fraud drew the attention of the Chinese authorities to the enormous economic consequences and personal difficulties, calling on the government of their native country to influence their British colleagues: "So that voices can be heard in the struggle for the return of property."
The UK authorities have not yet revealed their plans for the future of the confiscated bitcoins.
Earlier, the Chinese police announced the arrest of part of the team and the beginning of an investigation into the STFIL liquid trading platform, created on the basis of Filecoin.