A UK attorney calls the $6 billion Bitcoin laundering case's "super villain."

In a London court, Jian Wen is accused of laundering Bitcoin as part of a purported $6 billion investment scam. Her defence team argues that she was duped by the real mastermind of the operation.

Madilyn Swift

March 02, 2024

1Min Read

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Crypto

The prosecution claims that while employed by Yadi Zhang, Wen used middlemen to convert Bitcoin to cash, which she then used to buy a Dubai property. At the same time, Wen says that when more than £1.7 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) was taken from her home, she had no idea that her employer's money was obtained illegally.

Mark Harris, the defence attorney, claimed that Zhang was the real mastermind of the plot and that he had influenced Wen.

There is no other way to characterise Zhang Zhang except as a super villain, Harris declared.

Harris went on, "Nobody in their right mind would sign up for that," painting Wen as an inadvertent scapegoat in Zhang's plan to defraud some 130,000 investors throughout China using intricate investment structures.

Zhang, who entered the United Kingdom in 2017 on a St. Kitts and Nevis passport and left the country in 2020, was described by the defence as a "master of deception."

The defence focused on Wen's prior work experience at a fast food restaurant before to her involvement in Zhang's money laundering in 2017, highlighting the defendant's unintentional transition into a suspect under Zhang's influence.

Jian was required to be the unintentional central figure in Zhang's complex scheme, as Harris disclosed Zhang's stated intention to build a kingdom in Liberland, a region that lies between Croatia and Serbia.