A police video shows the moment the Chinese mastermind of an international cryptocurrency scam was arrested in bed at a York Airbnb.
Zhimin Qian, 47, has been jailed after masterminding a fraud that led UK police to make the world’s largest ever cryptocurrency seizure of Bitcoin worth more than £5.5 billion.
She defrauded more than 128,000 victims in China through a Ponzi scheme before fleeing to the UK as an international fugitive.
Video
A six-year manhunt for the Chinese woman who was behind Britain’s biggest ever money-laundering case ended with Metropolitan Police storming the Airbnb in York.
One officer boots down the door of a bedroom. Inside, Qian was found cowering under a bedsheet.
YorkMix has tracked the holiday let to Ryecroft Avenue in Woodthorpe.
Ryecroft Avenue, Woodthorpe
Qian had stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets and spent years evading UK police by sightseeing across Europe, staying in upmarket hotels and living a life of “luxury”, Southwark Crown Court heard.
Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, was eventually arrested in 2024 after spending nearly six years “at large”, in what has been described by police as the single largest confirmed cryptocurrency seizure in the world.
The businesswoman was sentenced to 11 years and eight months at the same court yesterday after previously admitting money laundering offences and transferring and possessing criminal property, namely cryptocurrency.
Her accomplice, Seng Hok Ling, 47, was also sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to transferring criminal property over his role in the multibillion-pound fraud.
When Qian and Ling were convicted in September, the value of the Bitcoin was priced at more than £5.5 billion, according to Metropolitan Police officers.
Police working on the case tracked a transfer of Bitcoin to the address in York.
Police visited the address in April 2024 and discovered Qian.
Authorities discovered several devices at Qian’s address, including a laptop containing a cryptocurrency wallet with millions of pounds worth of Bitcoin.
She was arrested at the address in York in April 2024 and taken to a local police station.
Qian was subsequently charged with the money laundering offences.
She had chosen her Airbnb well. Ryecroft in Woodthorpe can sleep up to six people in three bedrooms, and it comes with a ground floor wet room and south facing garden.
“Whether you’re here for a reunion, the Races, to do some shopping, to immerse yourself in the history and sight-seeing or just to chill-out in a quiet space, you’ll enjoy Ryecroft,” the details say.
It has a 4.94/5 star rating making it “one of the most loved homes on Airbnb”.
