Altcoins Talks - Cryptocurrency Forum
Cryptocurrency Ecosystem => Bitcoin Forum => Topic started by: SmartGold01 on May 31, 2024, 05:37:46 AM
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"Jian Wen, 42, was involved in converting Bitcoin into assets like luxury houses.
A former takeaway worker found with Bitcoin worth more than £2bn was jailed for six years and eight months for a crime linked to money laundering on Friday. Jian Wen, 42, from Hendon, in north London, was involved in converting the currency into assets including multi-million-pound houses and jewellery.
At Southwark Crown court in March, she was convicted of entering into or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement.The Metropolitan Police said at the time of the conviction the seizure was the largest of its kind in the UK."
When I came across this news on a bbc.com website I couldn't believed it but was moved to share over here to know her involvement as when she started making investment to have worth almost €2b worth in bitcoin, most times it's hard to believe story like this.
The floor is open for discussion (if this already discussed then remind me to Lock this topic)
also this post already been created the other forum by me as well to have different overview from people.
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So, she moved from a small apartment to a rented house for about 17,000 per month, and she is a takeaway worker. I don’t know, but such lifestyle changes will quickly make the police knock on your door. She must have been exploited by a third party.
Although Wen was living in a flat above a Chinese restaurant in Leeds when she became involved in the criminal activity, her new lifestyle saw her move into a six-bedroom house in north London in 2017 which was rented for more than £17,000 per month.
Another suspect is thought to be behind the fraud but they remain at large.
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The details of the money laundering process have not been clarified, and I do not know what money laundering activity is related to it, but I do not believe such stories.
Article link ---> https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-68620253
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"Jian Wen, 42, was involved in converting Bitcoin into assets like luxury houses.
OMG BTC of worth $2 billion which now has become more than $3.2 billion due to the price fluctuations in money laundering is big news. I mean I am flattered BTW from the fact that how it became 3.2$ billion due to price fluctuations, this shows that those who have invested big will definitely going to earn big as well. That's an obvious thing well so let's focus on the case only.
When I saw the woman's face I thought she must be some kind of culprit I mean by the looks on her face who would say she had so much money, it seems that she is not a social person maybe, I am glad the process of money laundering has been stopped due to this person. As still the governments of the UK and authorities there will talk bad about BTC, they won't say a word about how she Money is laundered in Gold and via properties they will only talk about BTC as the more amount is in the form of BTC where are the stats showing he had some X money in gold or X money in Properties. Why only go after BTC. That's strange.
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When I came across this news on a bbc.com website I couldn't believed it but was moved to share over here to know her involvement as when she started making investment to have worth almost €2b worth in bitcoin, most times it's hard to believe story like this.
If she could invest in crypto and earn €2B, I don't think she's an ordinary person. No ordinary person holds more than 30K BTC ^^
I think we should wait for the official conclusion on this case from the police. I do not support the money laundering activities of any bad guys in the market. This behavior causes BTC and the crypto community more legal trouble with annoying accusations.
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Her action is clearly a very questionable one and since she cannot hide her luxurious way of living then this is what she can earn , am sure there are many of us here that also breaking their government rules but at least we knew how to hide our funds and uses them in living a normal life.
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Well, I think that lady was not very clear about the concept of "keeping a low profile". Anyway, I think there are things in the news that don't make much sense... Did that lady go from having a takeaway job to having €2bn worth of Bitcoin from overnight?. I really doubt it... Did she not realize the exponential growth of the funds?. I also doubt it... A person who actually has a takeaway job wouldn't do something like that, or as @hugeblack says, that woman has been exploited and also deceived or forced for many things, including probably money laundering. The news itself is very strange without more details.
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The news itself is very strange without more details.
She is part of an investment fraud operation according to some more detailed news.
She used illegal money to buy jewellery, luxury stuffs to legalize her fraud money and maybe she hope she can enjoy her life and will sell those stuffs later to get clean money.
- British-Chinese Money Launder Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison for Role in $6B Fraud: FT (https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/05/24/british-chinese-money-launder-sentenced-to-6-years-in-prison-for-role-in-6b-fraud-ft/)
- Former Chinese takeaway worker jailed for money laundering after police seized 61,000 bitcoins — currently worth $4 billion (https://africa.businessinsider.com/news/former-chinese-takeaway-worker-jailed-for-money-laundering-after-police-seized-61000/7zb0m8r)
The subsequent investigation culminated in police seizing devices containing 61,000 bitcoins — currently worth more than $4 billion — in 2018, in what was the UK's largest-ever crypto seizure.
The funds are said to have come from an investment fraud operation in China led by her "employer," Yadi Zhang.
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Sally-Ann Hales, KC, said that more than 128,000 investors pumped 40 billion Renminbi (roughly $5.6 billion) into the scheme.
Jian Wen, 42, who was alleged to have carrying out the laundering on behalf of her former boss, was found guilty in March.
Zhimian is alleged to have defrauded around 130,000 investors in China in an investment scam that brought in $5 billion.
If she could invest in crypto and earn €2B, I don't think she's an ordinary person. No ordinary person holds more than 30K BTC ^^
She scammed people and investors to get this whale-number of bitcoin. It is very abnormal that people suddenly got such massive bitcoins recently if they are not Bitcoin ogs from many years ago.
Only 101 addresses with bitcoins from 10k to 100k according to Bitcoin rich list.
- https://bitinfocharts.com/top-100-richest-bitcoin-addresses.html
But if we filter addresses with only 30k+ bitcoin, the figure is only 29 addresses. See there.
- https://blockchair.com/bitcoin/addresses?s=balance(asc)&q=balance(3000000000000..)
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@tranthidung now everything makes more sense and I understand it better. Not only did she have a large amount of Bitcoins that she was trying to launder, but she obtained all of those funds through scams with more people. Well, I think Jian Wen has been very lucky that the sentence is only 6 years considering the amounts of money and the charges against her, in another countries the sentence would undoubtedly have been much more severe. I don't want to think what the sentence would have been like if the events had been in the United States, for example.
News of this type is what does the most damage to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, making the majority of the population think that those of us who use cryptocurrencies are criminals.
Thanks for expanding the information!
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Her action is clearly a very questionable one and since she cannot hide her luxurious way of living then this is what she can earn , am sure there are many of us here that also breaking their government rules but at least we knew how to hide our funds and uses them in living a normal life.
The scale of this money laundering case is quite staggering and the reason why cryptocurrency got connected to this story is because fraudster Zhimin Qian accepted it for her scam operation and she was then using Jian Wen serving as a "front person" in laundering profits from a £5 billion investment fraud conducted in China between 2014 and 2017. With the temptation to display her newfound wealth so hard to resist, Jian Wen got investigated by authorities and is found to be doing something illegal so prison time is quite natural for her to experience. And I am hoping that this can be a big lesson to all people not to get into something involving fraud and scam as the arm of the law will eventually reach anyone anywhere.
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Her action is clearly a very questionable one and since she cannot hide her luxurious way of living then this is what she can earn , am sure there are many of us here that also breaking their government rules but at least we knew how to hide our funds and uses them in living a normal life.
The scale of this money laundering case is quite staggering and the reason why cryptocurrency got connected to this story is because fraudster Zhimin Qian accepted it for her scam operation and she was then using Jian Wen serving as a "front person" in laundering profits from a £5 billion investment fraud conducted in China between 2014 and 2017. With the temptation to display her newfound wealth so hard to resist, Jian Wen got investigated by authorities and is found to be doing something illegal so prison time is quite natural for her to experience. And I am hoping that this can be a big lesson to all people not to get into something involving fraud and scam as the arm of the law will eventually reach anyone anywhere.
A very hard lesson to learn , being jailed and may lose her assets just because of greedy action , and this prove one thing that you cannot Hide everything from the government unless you can keep your life normal and not be over showing your wealth .
sometimes we must keep our head down so others cannot see the mistakes in our faces , this will be a reminder for everyone that involving into crypto .
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News of this type is what does the most damage to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, making the majority of the population think that those of us who use cryptocurrencies are criminals.
I think the media has turned into a rage-bait machine in general. Sometimes they don't even fact-check and post fake info without any remorse. It is not limited to crypto, even game news is not free from their misleading title and articles. I believe the only people who regularly read news like this already have their mindset fixed anyway.
sometimes we must keep our head down so others cannot see the mistakes in our faces , this will be a reminder for everyone that involving into crypto .
Hard to imagine a police will randomly track the average joe down because they got rich so suddenly though. Maybe they will charge you with tax avoidance or something along those lines, where you can pay tax without being jailed for your 'crime'. Still, it is always a good idea to keep your privacy practices strong.
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Hard to imagine a police will randomly track the average joe down because they got rich so suddenly though.
It is not that difficult, as you will pay either in cash or via a bank transfer. If your bank account is around $10,000 per month, then inevitably if you receive a transfer of $5 million, the account will be closed and you will be asked about the source of the funds. However, if you paid in cash, in some cases it may be Send your data to the police to verify the source of the money. Therefore, it is not easy to live a luxurious life with money that you are trying to hide from the government.
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You cannot escape government surveillance if as a regular worker, you become very wealthy and are on a buying spree without a good and clear explanation of where you get your funds, because the government is good on its taxation and will always look for possible ways to tax its people you will under their radar if you are not moderate with your riches.
The government tracks all their taxpayers and they are good at pinning you down, since the lady has questionable sources the government through its created laws can confiscate your riches.
They allow you to grow your money but you have to allow the government to track you on how you made your money.
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So, she moved from a small apartment to a rented house for about 17,000 per month, and she is a takeaway worker. I don’t know, but such lifestyle changes will quickly make the police knock on your door. She must have been exploited by a third party.
Exactly. Because when a low-income earner, changes his or her living into a luxury, it brings up different monitors from people around to question or report the person's source of income to the government authority where the sudden financial upliftment is coming from.
I think the new wealth of the takeaway worker will be questionable and suspicious in any given societal environment because it's very rare for a low-income salary earner to rent a house for $17,000 per month without having illegal deals.
The takeaway worker brought the arrest to herself by showing off and living a luxurious life for herself.
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Bitcoin being used for illegal activity has always been a great news story to tell, journalists love talking about it like bitcoin makes it possible. I have to say, a lot of people laundered tens of billions, probably hundreds of billions of dollars until today without using bitcoin, I mean the combined money laundering of all time, not just a few people. That means, bitcoin isn't the one that makes this possible, it is always been done, and even if bitcoin didn't exist, people would have found a way. Doesn't mean that bitcoin can't be used, it just means that it is a snarky and terrible thing these newspapers do to make it look like bitcoin had any part in it.
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she deserves to be punished if she is proven guilty... and actually I am a little sorry, why Bitcoin is involved in the headline... even though the main case is money laundering, while Bitcoin is just a tool that is being misused by these brazen individuals. I see the media today is too biased towards those who have power or money. Some people use the media as a tool to attack or defend, and that obviously really annoys me.
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It is not that difficult, as you will pay either in cash or via a bank transfer. If your bank account is around $10,000 per month, then inevitably if you receive a transfer of $5 million, the account will be closed and you will be asked about the source of the funds. However, if you paid in cash, in some cases it may be Send your data to the police to verify the source of the money. Therefore, it is not easy to live a luxurious life with money that you are trying to hide from the government.
A phrase that is often said in my country is: “a fool and his money do not last long together”. I think that phrase can be applied to what happened to this lady. I think that luxury, wanting to have things that are not really necessary, has not allowed her to think clearly, and now she must face the consequences. If she had stopped to think long and carefully about how not to attract anyone's attention (maintain a low profile, as I said in my previous post) it is very possible that she would have lived very well. She could have even enjoyed the luxuries that caused her downfall, but by planning each step carefully.
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Well, I think that lady was not very clear about the concept of "keeping a low profile". Anyway, I think there are things in the news that don't make much sense... Did that lady go from having a takeaway job to having €2bn worth of Bitcoin from overnight?. I really doubt it... Did she not realize the exponential growth of the funds?. I also doubt it... A person who actually has a takeaway job wouldn't do something like that, or as @hugeblack says, that woman has been exploited and also deceived or forced for many things, including probably money laundering. The news itself is very strange without more details.
High possibility that the woman has been exploited. But as you have said that the news isn't that detailed that really is strange for all of us who wanted a full and transparent newscast as things might start to play in our minds that they are hiding something on that story because someone powerful that is telling them not to do so. I could be wrong but anything can be possible here given that a real millionaire will probably won't do what the woman did based on that news as she is too loud for such a huge asset on her possession. If proven guilty then I feel sorry for that woman but on the otherhand that bust is good for the authorities kudos to them but that will literally draw a bad image to the crypto community especially Bitcoin.
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Well, I think that lady was not very clear about the concept of "keeping a low profile". Anyway, I think there are things in the news that don't make much sense... Did that lady go from having a takeaway job to having €2bn worth of Bitcoin from overnight?. I really doubt it... Did she not realize the exponential growth of the funds?. I also doubt it... A person who actually has a takeaway job wouldn't do something like that, or as @hugeblack says, that woman has been exploited and also deceived or forced for many things, including probably money laundering. The news itself is very strange without more details.
High possibility that the woman has been exploited. But as you have said that the news isn't that detailed that really is strange for all of us who wanted a full and transparent newscast as things might start to play in our minds that they are hiding something on that story because someone powerful that is telling them not to do so. I could be wrong but anything can be possible here given that a real millionaire will probably won't do what the woman did based on that news as she is too loud for such a huge asset on her possession. If proven guilty then I feel sorry for that woman but on the otherhand that bust is good for the authorities kudos to them but that will literally draw a bad image to the crypto community especially Bitcoin.
Yes, she is like the middleman from a powerful criminals from China and so she has not any choice but to comply with the demands and exchange those Bitcoin into assets. So this is the very definition of money laundering and it's really very unfortunate for her to be the one caught in this while the criminals are still into hiding.
Most likely the UK court will proved her as guilty, it's just a matter of how many years she will stay in prison as part of one of the biggest crypto related laundered money caught in the act, without using mixing services.
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It should have been easy for her to prove that she really earned those BTC from mining ;D If it took the authorities 5 years to build a strong case, then it's probably true that she laundered money.
She reminds of the people involved in laundering the hacked BTC from Mt. Gox.
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It should have been easy for her to prove that she really earned those BTC from mining ;D If it took the authorities 5 years to build a strong case, then it's probably true that she laundered money.
In the past, it was easy to buy old mined bitcoins (7-10 years ago.) I do not know if that is possible now, but it is less harmful than mining bitcoin which will put the spotlight on you more than moving to a luxury villa.
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an extraordinary incident for a woman, pretending to be innocent or just being used by other people to launder money,
but I believe he is just a scapegoat,
but by reading the statement from Tranthidung's brother, it all makes sense if he made a fake investment, you could say, and ended up having 61,000 bitcoins, an extraordinary achievement for his innocent face,
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Yes, she is like the middleman from a powerful criminals from China and so she has not any choice but to comply with the demands and exchange those Bitcoin into assets. So this is the very definition of money laundering and it's really very unfortunate for her to be the one caught in this while the criminals are still into hiding.
Most likely the UK court will proved her as guilty, it's just a matter of how many years she will stay in prison as part of one of the biggest crypto related laundered money caught in the act, without using mixing services.
I find it strange that this lady was part of a criminal gang from China (or any other country) and acted the way she did... I'm not sure, but don't you think a criminal gang wouldn't use just one person for something that big?. We are talking about a large amount of Bitcoins, in the hands of a single person, and as I said in another of my posts, this girl was not very clear about what a low profile is. Keeping a low profile would be the first thing a person with the intentions this girl had for a long time would do. Paying 17,000 a month for a house while working in a takeaway restaurant is something that sets off many alarms, it does not make any sense.
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Hard to imagine a police will randomly track the average joe down because they got rich so suddenly though. Maybe they will charge you with tax avoidance or something along those lines, where you can pay tax without being jailed for your 'crime'. Still, it is always a good idea to keep your privacy practices strong.
All large purchases are reported, and the rent was not the real problem she got away with that quite easily, she tried to buy properties worth more than 50 million, and that's when the authorities were altered.
You can't out of the blue come and spend 50 million being a foreigner who has worked only for 3 months on the minimum wage in the UK.
With all transactions now digitalized and all branches of government having access easily to the other's data it's just a matter of comparing a few tables in a database based on an id. One query and that's it!
The interesting part is to see if the UK will return any funds to China and how would China prove that those funds where from the scam happening there a decade ago.
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All large purchases are reported, and the rent was not the real problem she got away with that quite easily, she tried to buy properties worth more than 50 million, and that's when the authorities were altered.
You can't out of the blue come and spend 50 million being a foreigner who has worked only for 3 months on the minimum wage in the UK.
With all transactions now digitalized and all branches of government having access easily to the other's data it's just a matter of comparing a few tables in a database based on an id. One query and that's it!
The interesting part is to see if the UK will return any funds to China and how would China prove that those funds where from the scam happening there a decade ago.
I don't think there is anyone with so little brain to make purchases like this and not realize that the authorities can know about it in a matter of hours, so it is very likely that this woman was not only forced, but threatened (damages to third parties) to act the way she did, and probably for fear of reprisals she will have to bear the consequences alone.
Taking into account the current state of international relations, I believe that these funds will remain in the UK for a long time. The typical thing in these cases is that one party claims the funds because it is the country of origin, and the other party claims the funds because it is the country where the crime was committed.
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At Southwark Crown court in March, she was convicted of entering into or becoming concerned in a money laundering arrangement.The Metropolitan Police said at the time of the conviction the seizure was the largest of its kind in the UK."..............
The key is here, the money laundering.
It's not the Bitcoin problem, but if he is proven to be laundering money, then whatever the method, he will definitely be caught. Even if he doesn't make it in Bitcoin he will still get hit. because there was an unusual transaction on his account, that's why he was suspected and investigators were smart about that.
There are many types of money laundering that we can encounter cases of. It's just that, especially, if it involves Bitcoin it will make Bitcoin haters even more enthusiastic about giving bad news about the dangers of Bitcoin because it makes money laundering easier. This will appear funny and annoying.
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It should have been easy for her to prove that she really earned those BTC from mining ;D If it took the authorities 5 years to build a strong case, then it's probably true that she laundered money.
In the past, it was easy to buy old mined bitcoins (7-10 years ago.) I do not know if that is possible now, but it is less harmful than mining bitcoin which will put the spotlight on you more than moving to a luxury villa.
There were sites on the darknet where you could buy them from but they have basically become scams now (as well as almost every other service on The Hidden Wiki).
All large purchases are reported, and the rent was not the real problem she got away with that quite easily, she tried to buy properties worth more than 50 million, and that's when the authorities were altered.
You can't out of the blue come and spend 50 million being a foreigner who has worked only for 3 months on the minimum wage in the UK.
With all transactions now digitalized and all branches of government having access easily to the other's data it's just a matter of comparing a few tables in a database based on an id. One query and that's it!
The interesting part is to see if the UK will return any funds to China and how would China prove that those funds where from the scam happening there a decade ago.
Money laundering done in any way is bad, it's just that this time it happened to be done with Bitcoin.
But I don't get this. Why would UK return the funds to China? I don't think that they belonged to them in the first place.
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I don't think there is anyone with so little brain to make purchases like this and not realize that the authorities can know about it in a matter of hours, so it is very likely that this woman was not only forced, but threatened (damages to third parties) to act the way she did, and probably for fear of reprisals she will have to bear the consequences alone.
Not going to say it's white or black here but we're talking about a woman who went to a foreign country barely managing the minimum wage and saw an opportunity to live a life in luxury for a while, you have to take this also into account.
So you have almost nothing, you know the money is dirty, and you think you can hide a hundred thousand so even if you go to jail for 5 years you have more than you will make in all your life, desperate people would risk it, you only live once and if they have the opportunity to do in one year what not even 1% of the world would experience in 100 they will.
The other problem with a cartel behind it, is you said she acted stupid, I agree with that, but if she was threatened to do those, then the cartel behind the orders made these stupid mistakes too, which becomes a bit weird.
But I don't get this. Why would UK return the funds to China? I don't think that they belonged to them in the first place.
Money is supposedly to come from a scam in China
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/crime/article-13251655/Chinese-Bitcoin-crook-fraud-moved-cryptocurrency.html
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What I learned in this topic is that you can be jailed using crypto if you don't have enough knowledge in it. If you have an assets like Bitcoin, it's always safe for you to use mixers so that no one can accused you of fraudulent activities. If we are working to company and they pay crypto, we don't really know where the money came from, so avoid such things posted above, use a trusted mixers.
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she deserves to be punished if she is proven guilty... and actually I am a little sorry, why Bitcoin is involved in the headline... even though the main case is money laundering, while Bitcoin is just a tool that is being misused by these brazen individuals. I see the media today is too biased towards those who have power or money. Some people use the media as a tool to attack or defend, and that obviously really annoys me.
The media knows very well that when the word Bitcoin can be associated with that person, the news will attract a lot of attention. It would be worthwhile to publish that news. This is not new but in recent times people's behavior is such that news is being displayed in such a way that makes people completely confused. Money laundering was there before and still is there so there is no need to worry about it. Bitcoin is only a medium there and we cannot be held responsible for this.
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she deserves to be punished if she is proven guilty... and actually I am a little sorry, why Bitcoin is involved in the headline... even though the main case is money laundering, while Bitcoin is just a tool that is being misused by these brazen individuals. I see the media today is too biased towards those who have power or money. Some people use the media as a tool to attack or defend, and that obviously really annoys me.
Hmm, I'm not aware of this full story yup but there was a reference on another forum about this case i haven't gone through it completely but yup seems like she's guilty because why anyone would like to reveal his/her identity while holding such immense amount, this case is might be related to money laundering but we cant be sure for anything as I said I haven't studied the case properly.
Anyone if he's a genuine crypto investor he/she must be aware of identity threats, in the market also how can some be imprinted while having such experience in the market to make such a withdrawal move?
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she deserves to be punished if she is proven guilty... and actually I am a little sorry, why Bitcoin is involved in the headline... even though the main case is money laundering, while Bitcoin is just a tool that is being misused by these brazen individuals. I see the media today is too biased towards those who have power or money. Some people use the media as a tool to attack or defend, and that obviously really annoys me.
Hmm, I'm not aware of this full story yup but there was a reference on another forum about this case i haven't gone through it completely but yup seems like she's guilty because why anyone would like to reveal his/her identity while holding such immense amount, this case is might be related to money laundering but we cant be sure for anything as I said I haven't studied the case properly.
Anyone if he's a genuine crypto investor he/she must be aware of identity threats, in the market also how can some be imprinted while having such experience in the market to make such a withdrawal move?
She was only the middle man or in this case woman. She was just tasked to move the money around as in to launder to be able to hide all the source of it. Unfortunately, she was sloppy and so that authorities was able to identify him and now she is being sent to jail.
But the real culprit is somewhere hiding in China, and I doubt that they will able to caught him unless someone tries to cooperate the Chinese government so that they can apprehend the man.