From a dream of becoming a queen to imprisonment, Qian Zhimin’s absurd scam involving 60,000 bitcoins.

Original author: Proto Staff

Compiled by: Peggy, BlockBeats

Editor’s Note: In the history of 加密graphy, few scams have been as absurd and large-scale as this.

Qian Zhimin, the Chinese woman who claimed she would be crowned queen in a “micro-nation,” was ultimately sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in prison by a British court for orchestrating a fraud involving 60,000 比特币s and a total of $6 billion.

She once dreamed of building temples, wearing crowns, and being crowned in Liberland. Now, behind bars, she faces the collapse of the myth she herself wove.

The following is a translation of the original text.

From a Queen’s Dream to Prison Gates

Qian Zhimin’s life story is like an absurd “encrypted fairy tale”.

A 47-year-old Chinese woman has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by a British court for orchestrating and leading a $6 billion Bitcoin scam. She fled to the UK in 2017 after launching and carrying out the scam in China. Seven years later, in 2024, she was arrested in York and pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges in a British court the following year.

But before her arrest, her ambitions went far beyond “getting rich”.

According to the Financial Times, in her online diary, Qian Zhimin claimed that she would “ascend the throne” as the queen of Liberland, a “microstate” led by Justin Sun, and planned to invite the Dalai Lama to crown her as a “goddess.” She planned to build Buddhist temples, an airport, and a port on that 7-square-kilometer area sandwiched between Croatia and Serbia, and even intended to spend $5 million to create her own crown and scepter.

That’s not all. According to British media reports, she also plans to curry favor with a British duke and, incidentally, buy a Swedish castle to add a touch of European flair to her “kingdom.”

The problem is that Liberland is not a place that needs a “queen.” This unrecognized “country” calls itself a democratic republic (rather than a monarchy), with its founder, Witt Jedlicka, serving as president, while cryptocurrency billionaire Justin Sun, founder of TRON, has been elected prime minister for five consecutive terms.

The illusion of 300% returns led to the downfall of 120,000 people.

At the height of the scam, she promised investors returns of up to 300% and claimed that the project had “high-level support” and could even hold investment promotion meetings in China’s Legislative Assembly Hall—until the scam collapsed.

Investigations revealed that before she fled to the UK, over 120,000 people had been defrauded, with the amount involved equivalent to approximately 60,000 bitcoins. She then partnered with a former food delivery worker to launder the money, and over the years, the value of these bitcoins skyrocketed to $6 billion.

The whereabouts of this massive Bitcoin asset remain unknown. Lawyers revealed that thousands of victims are attempting to recover their funds through legal means, but due to the layers of transfers and the involvement of local promoters, proving their claims is extremely difficult.

According to reports, the related civil case for recovering the stolen assets is expected to go to trial early next year, at which time the specific method of handling this huge sum of Bitcoin will be determined.

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