Zhimin Qian, 47, pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Monday to two offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act (2002) related to crypto currency laundering.

Between 2014 and 2017, Qian orchestrated a large-scale fraud in China by defrauding over 128,000 victims and went on to store the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets. She then fled China using false documents and entered the UK, where in September 2018 she attempted to launder the proceeds by purchasing property and jewellery in the UK  and Dubai, and lived in a swish £5m rented mansion in north London.

The guilty plea by Qian followed a seven-year investigation by the Metropolitan Police’s economic crime team into international money laundering, which saw the Chinese national, who also uses the name Yadi Zhang, plead guilty.