A Chinese language nationwide has been convicted for her function in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme after legislation enforcement authorities within the U.Ok. confiscated £5.5 billion (about $7.39 billion) throughout a raid of her residence in London.
The cryptocurrency seizure, amounting to 61,000 Bitcoin, is believed to be the only largest such effort on the earth, the Metropolitan Police mentioned.
Zhimin Qian (aka Yadi Zhang), 47, pleaded responsible at Southwark Crown Courtroom on Monday to offenses associated to buying and possessing legal property (i.e., cryptocurrency). She is predicted to be sentenced at a later date.
The Met Police mentioned the seizure was the results of a probe launched in 2018 after it obtained a tip-off in regards to the switch of legal property, with the company accusing Zhang of orchestrating a large-scale fraud in China between 2014 and 2017 that defrauded greater than 128,000 victims. In accordance with Sky Information, Zhang was arrested in April 2024.
The scheme primarily duping victims, largely between 50 and 75 years previous, into investing their funds with false guarantees of day by day dividends and assured income, after which the proceeds are transformed into Bitcoin.
“She then fled China utilizing false paperwork and entered the U.Ok., the place in September 2018 she tried to launder the proceeds by way of buying property, with the help of an assailant, Jian Wen,” the company famous.
Wen was additionally jailed for six years and eight months final Could for her function within the operation, which concerned facilitating the motion of a cryptocurrency pockets that contained 150 Bitcoin, then valued at £1.7 million ($2.28 million). Earlier this January, Wen was ordered to pay again greater than £3.1 million ($4.16 million) or face further time in jail.
Operation Contender 3.0 Targets Romance Scams and Sextortion in 14 African Nations
The event comes as INTERPOL mentioned authorities in 14 African nations arrested 260 suspects and seized 1,235 digital units as a part of a coordinated worldwide operation dubbed Contender 3.0 that occurred between July 28 and August 11, 2025, to deal with cyber-enabled crime.
Nations that participated within the exercise included Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.
“The crackdown focused transnational legal networks exploiting digital platforms, notably social media, to control victims and defraud them financially,” it mentioned. “Particularly, the operation targeted on romance scams, the place perpetrators construct on-line relationships to extract cash from victims, and sextortion, wherein victims are blackmailed with specific photographs or movies.”
The illicit actions have claimed 1,463 victims, leading to losses of $2.8 million. The arrests had been carried out in Ghana, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and Angola. The suspects had been discovered to make use of pretend profiles, solid identities, and stolen photographs to deceive victims and pull off the scams and, in some circumstances, trick people into sharing intimate photographs.
Alongside the arrests, USB drives, SIM playing cards, and solid paperwork utilized by the suspects to help their legal actions had been seized by officers. It additionally resulted within the dismantling of 81 cybercrime infrastructures throughout the continent.
Group-IB, which was one of many personal sector entities to help the operation together with Pattern Micro, mentioned it supplied intelligence on the perpetrators who focused and interacted with victims of romance scams and digital sextortion. It additionally mentioned it shared particulars concerning the fee information utilized by these criminals of their extortion makes an attempt.
“Cybercrime models throughout Africa are reporting a pointy rise in digital-enabled crimes corresponding to sextortion and romance scams,” Cyril Gout, performing government director of Police Companies at INTERPOL, mentioned. “The expansion of on-line platforms has opened new alternatives for legal networks to use victims, inflicting each monetary loss and psychological hurt.”
