Cryptoqueen who fled China for London mansion jailed over £5bn Bitcoin stash

Qian Zhimin bought cryptocurrency using funds stolen from thousands of Chinese pensioners, say police.

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Passing sentence at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Sally-Ann Hales told Qian Zhimin she was "the architect of this offending from its inception to its conclusion... your motive was one of pure greed".

After fleeing China, Qian moved to a mansion in Hampstead, north London. The Metropolitan Police raided it a year later and made one of the world's single largest crypto seizures.

More than 100,000 Chinese people invested their money in her company - which claimed to be developing high-tech health products and mining cryptocurrency. In reality, she embezzled the funds, police say.

Investors have told the BBC World Service they hope to get at least some of their cash back from the UK authorities. Anything left unclaimed would normally default to the UK government - leading some to speculate that the Treasury could stand to gain from the haul.