The Fall of the "Bitcoin Queen": The Shocking Secret of 61,000 BTC

CN
8 hours ago

Hua Hua, with her keen investment insight and unique personal charm, has attracted 130,000 domestic investors, with a total investment amount exceeding 40 billion yuan.

Written by: Mankun

On September 29, 2025, the largest Bitcoin money laundering case in global history will be heard again. This hearing comes nearly a year after the first hearing last year. On October 21, 2024, at the Southwark Crown Court in London, the core figure of the case, Zhang Yadi (real name Qian Zhimin, also known as Hua Hua), denied all illegal charges from the UK prosecution regarding her use of Bitcoin for money laundering. In this hearing, Hua Hua's attorney, Roger Sahota from BSQ Law Firm, will continue to adopt a not guilty defense stance, "denies all allegations of money laundering," and claims that the Bitcoin seized by authorities is not "criminal proceeds."

Who is Zhang Yadi (real name Qian Zhimin, also known as Hua Hua)? Why does she have so much Bitcoin?

Qian Zhimin is the actual controller of Lantian Ge Rui. The company was established in March 2014 with a registered capital of 30 million yuan, promoting itself as a technology company. It launched several so-called "short-term investment and financial management" products with enticing phrases like "high returns," "guaranteed profits," and "three generations of wealth." These products claimed annualized returns between 100% and 300%, far exceeding conventional investment returns. For example, one product claimed that an investment of 100,000 yuan could yield nearly 400,000 yuan after 30 months. Lantian Ge Rui attracted a large number of investors with the slogan, "You give Ge Rui three years, and Ge Rui will return you three generations of wealth."

From 2014 to 2017, Lantian Ge Rui illegally raised funds amounting to 40 billion yuan. In 2017, the company's products "exploded," and Qian Zhimin converted the illegal proceeds into Bitcoin and transferred it overseas, subsequently fleeing to the UK with a fake passport, resulting in significant losses for nearly 130,000 investors. In April 2017, the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Public Security Bureau initiated an investigation into Lantian Ge Rui. In June 2019, the public security authorities reported that 50 criminal suspects had been arrested, including Lantian Ge Rui's legal representative Ren Jiangtao, with 28 of them transferred for prosecution. The public security authorities have continued to pursue the recovery of assets, legally freezing and seizing some of the involved funds, properties, and vehicles, and the recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Qian Zhimin from the Victim's Perspective

[64-year-old Yang Fei still remembers the scene of meeting Hua Hua for the first time in October 2015. "To be honest, I didn't believe it when I first saw Hua Hua. She is about 1.5 meters tall, chubby, and gives a rather dull impression, not like someone who is capable of doing business. I thought, 'Come on, can this person really help ordinary people make money?' I was ready to give up, but once she started speaking, she captivated me." Yang Fei said. Hua Hua's voice was steady and confident, and she never stuttered. She introduced Yang Fei to Lantian Ge Rui's Bitcoin business, saying that Bitcoin is like gold among digital currencies, will not face inflation, and will continue to rise, predicting "one coin for one villa" in the future. Additionally, Hua Hua mentioned the international technological development trends at the time, talking about Lantian Ge Rui's plans to develop technology products, claiming it would become a leader in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She predicted that there would inevitably be trade wars, technology wars, and financial wars between China and the US in a few years, and as long as investors followed her to mine coins and invest in technology products, they would be able to resist the comprehensive invasion from the US. "She spoke for nearly two hours without urging me to invest, and I didn't feel annoyed; I actually absorbed everything." Yang Fei said he invested over 200,000 yuan after talking with Hua Hua that day.

This striking contrast is the first impression many investors had of Hua Hua. Investor Ye Houde, who has been in the home building materials business for decades, invested in Lantian Ge Rui in the second half of 2014. He had never heard of Bitcoin before, but after meeting Hua Hua and seeing her draw a few circles and arrows on a whiteboard with a marker to explain Bitcoin and blockchain, he felt he understood, thinking, "Investing in Bitcoin with her is a good opportunity." Subsequently, he bought into every project, investing over 10 million yuan, focusing solely on Bitcoin investments, eventually closing his store and even becoming a small leader, responsible for "popularizing" Bitcoin and Lantian Ge Rui's dynamics to other investors in Tangshan, Hebei, answering their questions.]

—— Source: "Sanlian Life Weekly"

A Thought Can Lead to Enlightenment, A Thought Can Lead to Demons

Since 2017, eight years have passed in the Lantian Ge Rui case, and the former protagonist "Hua Hua" and the investment frenzy she sparked still evoke sighs. Although public information is limited, we can still glimpse the complexity and controversy of this case. It is reported that Hua Hua, with her keen investment insight and unique personal charm, attracted 130,000 domestic investors, with a total investment amount exceeding 40 billion yuan.

Surprisingly, among the victims are many retired public security and judicial personnel, successful entrepreneurs, and other highly educated individuals. This raises the question: what charm did Hua Hua possess that made so many investors flock to her?

From the available information, Hua Hua may have had the opportunity to become a well-known cryptocurrency investor. As early as 2014, she recognized the intrinsic value of Bitcoin and blockchain technology, becoming one of the earliest evangelists of Bitcoin in the country. She promised investors: "Bitcoin is the 'gold' among digital currencies, will not face inflation, and its price will continue to rise, in the future one coin can be exchanged for one villa." Looking back now, this prediction has, to some extent, become a reality: by 2025, the price of Bitcoin has soared to about $120,000 (nearly one million yuan). If Hua Hua had indeed purchased Bitcoin for investors back then, she might have already become a "good entrepreneur" leading many to wealth, rather than being a prisoner in the UK today. However, as the ancient saying goes, "Flowers may bloom again, but youth will not return," Hua Hua's intelligence and talent led to a tragic ending due to being misdirected.

Nevertheless, Hua Hua's "investment acumen" has left her with a substantial fortune—61,000 Bitcoins (which have been frozen by the UK police, and the actual number may be more). This asset is now quite valuable and has become the focal point of the case. Just like the collapse of the famous cryptocurrency exchange FTX, where founder SBF was imprisoned, the Solana public chain he left behind has now become one of the public chains with the highest daily active users and the largest DeFi trading volume globally, with related crypto assets significantly appreciating. In the Lantian Ge Rui case, these 61,000 Bitcoins are undoubtedly important assets that the victims urgently need to claim.

Therefore, we urge victims to take proactive action by scanning the code to report their victim information and adding WeChat, choosing Mankun Law Firm as their representative lawyer. We are confident in helping victims recover their trapped assets from back then.

We will collaborate with professional law firms in the UK to continuously monitor the progress of Zhang Yadi's criminal case, deeply analyze the possibility of recovering frozen assets, and assess whether the frozen Bitcoins can be used to secure the best compensation plan for the victims based on the applicable laws of the criminal case and the evidence presented, striving to recover losses for the victims.

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