LONDON: UK authorities are trying to recover 16.2 million pounds (US$21.7 million) from a Malaysian fixer at the centre of a massive Bitcoin scam, a court was told Tuesday (Sep 30).
Hok Seng Ling, 47, admitted to money laundering at London’s Southwark Crown Court. Speaking through an interpreter, he just said the word “guilty”.
His plea came a day after mastermind Zhimin Qian, a Chinese businesswoman also known as Yadi Zhang, admitted a leading role in the multi-billion pound fraudulent Bitcoin scheme.
Ling, who had been living in Derbyshire in central England, had dealt in cryptocurrency on behalf of Qian with confiscation proceedings now underway to try to recover millions of pounds, the court heard.
The amount could be adjusted when the two are sentenced at a two-day hearing set for Nov 10 and 11.
Qian, also 47, on Monday pleaded guilty to acquiring and possessing criminal property, namely cryptocurrency, following what is believed to be the single largest cryptocurrency seizure in the world, now worth about 5.5 billion pounds.
Police said she had defrauded over 128,000 victims through a scheme in China between 2014-2017.
She went on to store the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets before fleeing to the UK and attempting to launder the proceeds by purchasing property.
