UK fraud office probes $28 million cryptocurrency collapse

The Serious Fraud Office of the U.K. said on Thursday it was investigating the collapse of a $28 million cryptocurrency scheme in U.K, urging investors to step forward after two men were arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering.

In its first major crypto investigation, the SFO said Basis Markets had raised  cash from  two public fundraisers in late 2021 by selling non-fungible tokens and used the funds to create a crypto hedge fund.

In June 2022, investors were told that the project was being scuppered by proposed new U.S. regulations, the SFO noted. The SFO was not immediately able to provide further details.

SFO investigators and police officers arrested the men after launching two raids in London and West Yorkshire, northern England, earlier on Thursday.

“With our expanding cryptocurrency capability and growing expertise in this area, we are determined to pursue anyone who would seek to use cryptocurrency to defraud investors,” said SFO Director Nick Ephgrave.

UK court jails Chinese bitcoin fraudster for over 11 years

A Chinese woman who masterminded a multibillion-dollar bitcoin scam and evaded authorities for years was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in jail by a UK court.

Nicknamed the “goddess of wealth”, 47-year-old Zhimin Qian orchestrated a Ponzi scheme that promised investors returns of up to 300 percent, defrauding around 128,000 people in China between 2014 and 2017.

It raised billions of dollars, much of which was converted to bitcoin.

After she came to the UK as a fugitive and during a multiyear investigation where she evaded capture, British police seized 61,000 bitcoin worth more than £5 billion ($6.6 billion), which the force called the largest single cryptocurrency seizure in the world.

She was arrested in the northern English city of York in 2024.

Qian, who pleaded guilty to possessing and transfering criminal property in September, appeared emotional as she received the sentence at London’s Southwark Crown Court.