How A Chinese Takeaway Employee Led Police To The Biggest Cryptocurrency Seizure In The United Kingdom

Jian Wen is a former employee at a Chinese takeaway restaurant in Southeast London.

She went from having a declared income of just $7,500 USD in the 2016-2017 financial year to attempting to buy the most expensive mansions in the city worth millions of dollars.

Jian Wen | Met Police

It all began when a woman named Yadi Zhang arrived in London in 2017. The 45-year old had fled China after conning nearly 130,000 Chinese investors in investment scams from 2014 to 2017. A total of $6 billion USD was earned which she then used to buy the cryptocurrency Bitcoin to disguise the illegal source of the stolen money.

Zhang made it her main goal to convert this Bitcoin into physical assets, something she needed help with. She picked Jian Wen to be her personal assistant after the latter responded to her advert for a “butler” on social media app WeChat. Together, they traversed the world and sold Bitcoin while buying jewelry, watches, property, and clothes worth tens of thousands each.

Wen in a trip to Germany | Met Police

Wen’s life changed drastically in just two years. From barely earning anything as a takeaway employee, she bought a $32,000 USD Mercedes and sent her son to the $7,600 USD-a-term preparatory school.

Police were only made aware of their crazy shopping sprees when Wen was tasked to buy some of London’s most expensive properties: a $30 million seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion with a swimming pool and a nearby $16 million home with a cinema and gym.

This tipped off anti-money laundering checks, with Wen being unable to explain the source of the 3,000 Bitcoin she had on hand. She claimed unconvincingly that it was mined despite a lack of physical proof before changing her tune and saying the Bitcoin was a “love gift” from Zhang.

Cash found in the police raids | Met Police

Prosecutors believed that Wen acted as a “front person” to help disguise the source of the stolen money. In just three months in 2017, more than $113,000 USD was spent in Harrods on designer women’s clothes, jewelry and shoes using a rewards card in Wen’s name.

On March 2024, Jian Wen was found guilty of money laundering between October 2017 and January 2022 by a London jury. She claimed that she had no idea about the source of the cryptocurrency and its ties to Zhang’s investment scams. She stated that she was duped by her boss and that she has “no idea” where she could be at present.

We were close…but looking back now, I was badly used. I have no idea where she is.

— Jian Wen

The house the women rented costs $21,500 USD a month | CPS