Seized bitcoin worth £5bn could fill black hole in public finances

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*David Woode, Crime Correspondent, January 26 2025, The Times*

A £5 billion stash of cryptocurrency seized from organised criminals could be used to plug the black hole in public finances.

The haul of digital currency could offer the chancellor a lifeline to help fill an estimated £22 billion deficit as a consequence of borrowing costs and a faltering economy.

The bitcoin is said to be in government accounts after it was seized from online wallets held by Jian Wen, a former Chinese takeaway worker who helped launder the proceeds of an alleged £7 billion cryptocurrency fraud. Wen, 43, was jailed for six years and eight months in May.

In the summer of 2021, officers gained access to devices containing digital wallets holding more than 61,000 bitcoin. Valued at more than £1.4 billion at the time, it was the UK’s biggest ever cryptocurrency seizure but it is now estimated to be worth about £5.2 billion.

Lord Lamont, the former Conservative chancellor, has called on Rachel Reeves to “spend it right away” and not hold onto it, telling the Mail on Sunday: “Otherwise it looks like the government is legitimising crypto, which has no intrinsic value. It would also help with the government’s finances.”

Reeves would need to seek advice on when to sell the cryptocurrency and get the best deal for taxpayers, it was reported.

The Times has been told that the Treasury does not hold the bitcoin on its balance sheet and such seizures are handled by the Home Office.

The recovery of the cryptocurrency is dealt with through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which gives authorities powers to deprive offenders of their money or other property connected to criminal activity and recover the assets. Seizures are typically made through confiscation orders, forfeiture orders and civil recovery.

The amount returned to the government will be dependent on victim compensation, recovery costs and a consideration for “international obligations”. The total expected to be added to the public purse has not been determined, sources said.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has sought permission from the High Court to keep the seized bitcoin. If the request is granted then the cash would pass to the Treasury.

In 2023, new laws were introduced that permitted seized cryptocurrency to be sold and the proceeds transferred to the government’s consolidated fund, which is best described as its current account at the Bank of England.

Wen was caught when she tried to buy a £23.5 million mansion in Hampstead, northwest London. Southwark crown court was told that she acted as a “frontperson” to help launder some of the profits of a £5 billion investment fraud carried out in China by the scheme’s alleged mastermind, Zhimin Qian, between 2014 and 2017.

Wen studied law in China before moving to Britain in 2007 on a spousal visa, but the marriage broke down. She was working in and living above a Chinese takeaway in southeast London in 2017 when she met Qian, who was known as the BitQueen.

Before working for Qian, Wen lived a modest lifestyle in Leeds, with declared earnings in 2015 and 2016 of just £12,800 and £5,979, prosecutors said.

She denied knowingly becoming an accomplice of Qian, who fled from China to Britain in 2017. Wen was assisted by the son of a wealthy Irish individual, who helped her convert bitcoin into currency which she used to buy properties and fund untraceable “black” credit cards.

In 2017, the two women moved into a six-bedroom property in Hampstead, which cost £17,000 a month to rent. They pretended to be owners of an international jewellery business, with Wen operating as the English-speaking and apparently legitimate front person for her employer.

Wen was later joined by her young son, who moved from China to attend a private school. She claimed to have been gifted 3,000 bitcoin, then valued at approximately £15 million, by Qian. She was found guilty of a single charge of entering into or becoming concerned in a money-laundering arrangement.

This month, the CPS secured a confiscation order against Wen of more than £3.1 million. Adrian Foster, a chief crown prosecutor, said: “Wen is a sophisticated money launderer who laundered many millions of the proceeds of crime.

“We have secured a confiscation order against her of more than £3.1 million, which she must pay within three months or risk being returned to prison for an additional sentence of seven years.”

Please don’t use the £5bn to fill a black hole.

Please use it to fill pot holes on our roads.

Also, how many (pot)holes does it take to fill the Albert Hall?

Do it, selling that much would cause it to crash, and I’d love to see crypto bro tears.

That and legalising weed would go a long way to sorting things out, both seem like a no brainer.

Beyond that I think without closer ties to the EU we have to give up on growth and start trying to make a fairer society, people only want growth because of what it implies, but all we really want is affordable housing, a decent NHS and a future for us and / or our kids, that can be achieved by charing the rich more, some will leave, but most will stay, its pretty much the only way out of this mess, and the only thing that will get Labour elected again.

100% guarantee that the government will fuck it up and sell at the worst possible price.

> In the **summer of 2021**, officers gained access to devices containing digital wallets holding more than 61,000 bitcoin. Valued at more than £1.4 billion at the time, it was the UK’s biggest ever cryptocurrency seizure but it is now estimated to be worth about £5.2 billion.
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> Lord Lamont, the **former Conservative chancellor**, has called on Rachel Reeves to “**spend it right away**” and **not hold onto it**, telling the Mail on Sunday: “Otherwise it looks like the government is legitimising crypto, which has no intrinsic value. It would also help with the government’s finances.”

As opposed to holding on to it for 3 years, eh, Tories?

More likely some of it will end up in severe people’s pockets

For one year yeah. How about keeping the BTC as a reserve like the entire world seems to be doing? People may call it a scam but it’s consistently proven to not be. Banks now buy it ffs.

No doubt the majority of the country will see absolutely 0 benefit from this

This is Reeves opportunity to do a Gordon Brown with the (digital) gold…

Can we stop with endlessly posting paywall articles?! What the hell. 

It will be used in loopholes to redirect into the elites pockets let’s not be naive

Why can’t this be reinvested into some kind of sovereign wealth fund or something. Does the UK government have no productive assets?

This is the first sensible thing I’ve heard her say

Let us know when selling the so I can buy at a low price 😂