On this year's Double Eleven day, the British court across the ocean announced the sentencing remarks for Qian Zhimin, the main perpetrator of the Lantian Gerui case.
This sentencing document clearly states that, based on Qian Zhimin's voluntary guilty plea to the charges of Possession of Criminal Property and Transferring Criminal Property, a base sentence of 13 years and 6 months was determined. After considering other sentencing factors, the court decided to merge the sentences for both charges and sentenced Qian Zhimin to 11 years and 8 months in prison.
Considering that Qian Zhimin has fully confessed (including admitting direct responsibility for the financial fraud case of Lantian Gerui in China) and received leniency in sentencing, the Sa Jie team believes that he may choose to accept this sentencing result and not appeal.
Today, the Sa Jie team will analyze the important contents of this sentencing document and provide guidance for the victims of the Lantian Gerui case in China to recover their funds.
(I) Confirmation that Qian Zhimin's criminal funds came from the Lantian Gerui case
Firstly, Qian Zhimin explicitly admitted in his written confession that the criminal property he possessed came from the Lantian Gerui case.
According to paragraph 4 of the Facts section of the sentencing document, the British court confirmed that the criminal property (mainly BTC and other large-scale investment derivative profits derived from BTC liquidation) that Qian Zhimin held and transferred in this case originated from a company in China named "Lantian Gerui."
This company was established by Qian Zhimin in March 2014 and engaged in financial fraud for a long time, collapsing in early 2017, with over 128,000 victims (participants in fundraising) and a total investment amount of approximately £4.6 billion. This fact is crucial for the Chinese victims—this is the basis for Chinese investors to pursue asset recovery.
Secondly, the court restored how Qian Zhimin converted the assets of Lantian Gerui investors into BTC and brought them to the UK through his written confession and other evidence.
According to paragraphs 5-6 of the Facts section of the sentencing document, the British court confirmed that in June 2014, Ms. Qian opened an account on Huobi using the name of one of the partners in the Lantian Gerui series of cases and gradually transferred investors' funds into that account and exchanged them for BTC. Additional investor funds were used for over-the-counter trading to purchase Bitcoin.
By the time the Chinese police began their investigation (around 2016-2017 when the scheme was about to collapse), Qian Zhimin had already purchased over 70,000 BTC. Before the incident, Qian Zhimin transferred all BTC from Huobi to a cold wallet on his personal laptop and, on July 26, 2017, escaped by impersonating Zhang Yadi, dispersing the virtual assets from that laptop and hiding them in Thailand. After arriving in the UK on September 16, 2017, Qian Zhimin found Jian Wen as his "money launderer" and retrieved the laptop and all BTC in two transactions.
What followed was a series of events already well-known to the public, where Jian Wen (and later Lin Chengfu, who also joined Qian Zhimin's money laundering team and was sentenced alongside him) continuously laundered money for Qian Zhimin, converting BTC into various assets to maintain his luxurious life while hiding in the UK, until Qian Zhimin was arrested in York on April 22, 2024.
(II) The British court's evaluation of Qian Zhimin's culpability—extremely serious crimes
It should be clarified that the British court did not evaluate Qian Zhimin's involvement in the Lantian Gerui case (the criminal acts did not occur in the UK, and the victims were not British), but only convicted him for the charges of possession of criminal property and transferring criminal property.
Regarding these two charges, the British court considered Qian Zhimin to be the principal offender, who intentionally recruited Jian Wen and Lin Chengfu for money laundering, with all related laundering transactions conducted under Qian Zhimin's control. His criminal behavior was highly premeditated, involved extremely large amounts, and spanned a long period (2017-2024). Therefore, the British court's evaluation of his culpability can be summarized in one idiom—extremely serious crimes.
In terms of the social harm of his actions, the court mainly evaluated it from the aspects of the amount of crime and upstream criminal behavior.
Regarding the amount of crime, since Qian Zhimin has already pleaded guilty, according to the UK's sentencing guidelines for guilty pleas, the starting point for the first level of financial crime harm is £30 million. If calculated based on the market value of a batch of BTC that the British police directly seized from Qian Zhimin in 2024, it amounts to approximately £384 million. If calculated based on the total value of all recovered BTC, it exceeds £1.5 billion, far exceeding the sentencing guidelines.
Although the defense attorney argued that the crime amount should be calculated based on the purchase price of BTC when Qian Zhimin bought it (an average price of £301.80 per coin, approximately 2800 RMB), which would be about £21.1 million, the judge believed: if you had always directly consumed BTC, this defense argument might hold, but the problem is you have been exchanging it for pounds, euros, and dollars at ever-increasing prices, buying big houses in Dubai, and shopping at Harrods for Hermès… The law cannot be lenient with you. Therefore, the defense argument was not accepted.
Although the Lantian Gerui case was not convicted and sentenced due to not occurring in the UK, it also became an important consideration for the British court's sentencing. However, the judge also admitted that this matter is indeed a bit difficult to evaluate:
From 2014 to 2017, Qian Zhimin committed large-scale investment fraud against Chinese investors (in the confession document submitted by Qian Zhimin, he admitted that Chinese investors were "misled"), but now, due to the surge in cryptocurrency prices after the current administration took office, if all recovered BTC were liquidated, it would indeed be enough to repay Chinese investors. Therefore, Qian Zhimin's lawyer's defense regarding his original intention in establishing Lantian Gerui to run a legitimate investment business and develop the commercial potential of cryptocurrency has some rationality.
Ultimately, after comprehensive consideration, the British court believed that Qian Zhimin's culpability belongs to the highest category and should set 13 years and 6 months as the base sentence after merging the two charges. Considering his pre-trial confession (somewhat similar to the leniency for confession in our country), first conviction, good behavior during detention (it is said that Qian Zhimin actively learned English in prison, with significant improvement in language skills), and willingness to return stolen assets (cooperating with civil litigation for recovery), the final decision on his sentence was 11 years and 8 months.
Thus, Qian Zhimin's case is basically settled.
For Chinese investors, Qian Zhimin's punishment is merely a psychological comfort; recovering real money is the key. Today, the Sa Jie team will briefly introduce the next steps that Chinese investors should take to pursue recovery.
In fact, in 2024, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the UK has already initiated civil compensation proceedings in the King’s Bench Division of the High Court based on Part 5 of the UK Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) and has frozen all BTC assets and other derived properties recovered in this case.
To facilitate the rights protection and recovery of Chinese investors, a public notice titled "Notice to Victims of the Lantian Gerui Fraud" has been released to explain the recovery matters (see details at:
https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/notice-victims-lantian-gerui-fraud)
Currently, Chinese investors have two main ways to pursue recovery of funds: one is to submit a claim application to a UK court with jurisdiction based on Article 281 of Part 5 of POCA.
The other is to rely on international judicial cooperation from the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau for recovery. At present, aside from differences in recovery costs, there is no significant advantage or disadvantage between the two paths; it mainly depends on whether investors prefer to rely on themselves or the state for rights protection, but pursuing both paths simultaneously is also feasible.
(I) Self-recovery path
According to the Sa Jie team, currently, several thousand people in China have already submitted claims to the UK High Court in cooperation with Chinese law firms based on Article 281 of POCA.
Theoretically, those victims who have submitted claims under Article 281 will enter the court's review process first, but this does not mean that these investors will have priority in recovering assets. The British court will likely appoint a trustee for civil recovery based on the prosecution's nomination to be responsible for the final asset takeover and return, a process somewhat similar to bankruptcy management.
Those who have successfully submitted claims under Article 281 and those who have not yet submitted claims but meet the conditions can participate in and accept the asset return from the trustee through legal procedures.
It is worth mentioning that the application of Article 281 of POCA is extremely limited and difficult, with particularly high thresholds. It will not only examine whether investors have "fault" but also determine the level of compensation based on the degree of investors' fault.
For a large number of investors in China, the possibility of achieving 100% compensation based on Article 281 of POCA is slightly low. After all, Lantian Gerui is essentially a P2P project, and investors themselves often have certain faults (numerous cases of illegal public fundraising in China have fully discussed the faults of fundraising participants).
Referring to the previous similar case NCA v Robb [2014] EWHC 4384 (Ch), among 180 investors, 71 submitted claims under Article 281, but the court ultimately only reviewed the requests of 8 lead claimants, highlighting the difficulty of this path and the high costs involved.
In fact, not long ago (on October 15, 2025), the UK prosecution proposed establishing a "Compensation Scheme" for Chinese victims during a temporary hearing, which is currently pending court review and approval. From this perspective, the British judicial authorities are doing relatively well in maintaining the legitimate rights of victims (in stark contrast to the bankruptcy administrator of FTX next door).
(II) Relying on our judicial authorities for recovery
In May 2024, the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau publicly announced that since February 2018, it has been continuously cooperating with relevant law enforcement agencies in the UK and other countries through international law enforcement cooperation channels to pursue fugitives and recover stolen assets. Regarding the statistics of victims' losses, the official "Lantian Gerui Clearance Working Group" started registration through a mini-program in 2022, with two supplementary registrations in 2023.
After Qian Zhimin's confession, the Tianjin police issued another notice on October 30, 2025, stating that the public security authorities are still continuing cross-border cooperation with UK law enforcement agencies to recover losses for fundraising participants.
Therefore, current fundraising participants who have not completed registration can verify and confirm their information between October 31, 2025, and December 29, 2025. The results of this verification will serve as the basis for subsequent fund returns. Note that those who have already pursued their rights independently can also register; the two processes do not conflict.
There is a basis for judicial cooperation between China and the UK. Both China and the UK are signatories to the United Nations Convention against Corruption and have signed the China-UK Criminal Justice Assistance Treaty (2013).
According to Articles 54 and 57 of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the UK is required to assist in the enforcement of confiscation orders from other countries under specific conditions; it has discretionary return rights for non-public funds. Article 20 of the China-UK Criminal Justice Assistance Treaty also stipulates that the UK may return or share recovered assets with the requesting party within the limits of the law.
This means that if a Chinese court makes a ruling in the future based on Article 298 of the Criminal Procedure Law regarding the "special procedure for the confiscation of illegal gains" (which can be handled in absentia) and meets the dual criminality principle and human rights standards, the UK may choose to recognize and enforce it.
The Sa Jie team reminds partners once again that the urgent task is to bring all evidence materials to the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau to complete the registration process, avoiding missing the window for recovery.
For those with the capacity, you can independently hire a lawyer to pursue rights protection in the UK. The two options do not have a clear advantage or disadvantage; partners should act according to their capabilities.
Related: The main perpetrator of the UK Bitcoin (BTC) money laundering case, Qian Zhimin, was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months, and the disposal of the illicit funds is still pending.
Original text: “Qian Zhimin Sentenced to 11 Years and 8 Months, What Should Chinese Investors Do After the 'Dust Settles'?”
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