Receptionist arrested for $2.5B Bitcoin scam
The hospitality worker who was arrested in March for money laundering with $2.5 billion in bitcoins was jailed for 6 years and 8 months on May 24.
According to a BBC report, Jian Wen, a 42-year-old hospitality worker from Hendon, north London, has been charged with money laundering by converting fiat currency into cryptocurrencies, multi-million pound homes and jewellery. The $2.5 billion Bitcoin (BTC) seizure is believed to be the largest of its kind in the UK.
The official's suspicions are based on Wen's change in lifestyle. In the year In 2017, she reportedly moved into a six-bedroom apartment above a Chinese restaurant in north London for $21,420 a month.
During the investigation, the police examined 48 electronic devices and thousands of digital files, many of which were translated from Mandarin.
The $2.5 billion Bitcoin case is similar to the 2016 Bitfinex hack, where over $2 billion worth of Bitcoin was also stolen.
The hackers tried to transfer the funds seven years after the exploit, but were eventually caught by US authorities. In both cases, the criminals were caught trying to cash out their BTC. Finally, their unruly lifestyle was the main reason for their capture.
Related: German authorities seize 50 thousand BTC linked to extortion websites
Critics highlight such incidents to negatively impact cryptocurrencies, saying they are often used for money laundering.
However, a recent report from the US Treasury Department challenges this widespread belief and suggests that cryptocurrency is not a popular choice for money laundering.
While digital assets are vulnerable to exploitation and hacking due to third-party vulnerabilities, decentralized technology still stands out in tracking down exploiters.
The Bitfinex hackers waited seven years before transferring the money, only to be caught. Similarly, many fraudsters and hackers have been caught and stolen funds recovered, thanks to distributed ledger technology, which allows tracking of these funds.
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