November 12, 2025
Gillian Jones KC and Max Baines have now concluded the prosecution of Zhimin Qian and Senghok Ling who were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to 11 years 8 months’ custody and 4 years 11 months respectively on money laundering offences.
Between 2014 and 2017 Ms Qian defrauded more than 128,000 victims across China, through a vast Ponzi scheme, before converting the stolen funds into Bitcoin and fleeing China to the UK under a false identity, where she set about laundering the cryptocurrency. Following an initial seizure in 2018, Ms Qian evaded authorities for six years before her arrest in 2024.
The case led to the recovery of Bitcoin assets valued at over £5 billion and is believed to represent the largest cryptocurrency seizure in history.
A third individual, Jian Wen, was also prosecuted by Gillian Jones KC and Max Baines in connection with her role in the laundering of the Bitcoin; she was convicted and sentenced in 2024.
Gillian Jones KC has a high-profile practice specialising in Financial & Business Crime, acting on behalf of individuals, corporate clients and the prosecution – many of her cases are well-known with a global reach
Max Baines is a specialist in serious Fraud and has been instructed in some of the most complex and high-profile cases in recent years including LIBOR and Forex
Gillian Jones KC and Max Baines were instructed in this case by the Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate of the CPS.
News stories:
The Guardian
The Independent
The Telegraph
The Business Times
Gulf Times
Daily Mirror
