seizure

Sept. 30 (UPI) — A 47-year-old Chinese national has pleaded guilty in Britain to a multi-billion-dollar Bitcoin scheme, according to Metropolitan Police, which said it has made what is possibly the “world’s largest” cryptocurrency seizure, worth more than $7.3 billion

Metropolitan Police said Zhimin Qian of no fixed address pleaded guilty Monday to charges of acquiring criminal property and possessing criminal property, with the property in both offenses being cryptocurrency.

The charges stem from allegations that Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, orchestrated a massive fraud scheme in her native China, defrauding more than 128,000 victims between 2014 and 2017.

Authorities said she stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets. She fled to Britain in September 2018 with the use of false documents and attempted to launder the proceeds by purchasing property.

wHer guilty plea on Monday follows seven years of investigation by the Metropolitan Police, authorities said.

“Today’s guilty plea marks the culmination of years of dedicated investigation by the Met’s Economic Crime teams and our partners,” Will Lyne, Metropolitan Police’s head of Economic and Cybercrime Command, said in a statement.

“This is one of the largest money laundering cases in U.K. history and among the highest-value cryptocurrency cases globally.

“I am extremely proud of the team.”

Authorities said that Qian had worked with Jian Wen, who was sentenced to more than 6 1/2 years in prison for her role in the scheme in January.

Wen, a 44-year-old former restaurant worker, had purchased two properties worth more than $672,000 in Dubai for Qian in 2019.

Authorities said that Wen was in possession of a cryptocurrency wallet with more than $403.3 million. She told police that she had worked for a Chinese national who had asked her to buy the Dubai properties and that she was unaware that the Bitcoins in her possession were the product of crime.

Metropolitan Police said it had seized more than 61,000 Bitcoin from Qian.

Specifics of how Qian defrauded victims of so much money in China were not initially clear.

“Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used by organized criminals to disguise and transfer assets, so that fraudsters may enjoy the benefits of their criminal conduct,” Robin Weyell, deputy chief crown prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said.

“This case, involving the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the U.K., illustrates the scale of criminal proceeds available to those fraudsters.”

Metropolitan Police

‘The goddess of wealth’

Crown Prosecution Service

California’s top law enforcement official has weighed in on Monday‘s controversial U.S. Supreme Court ruling on immigration enforcement.

Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta condemned the decision, which clears the way for immigration agents to stop and question people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally based solely on information such as their perceived race or place of employment.

Speaking at a news conference Monday in downtown L.A., Bonta said he agreed with claims the ACLU made in its lawsuit against the Trump administration. He called indiscriminate tactics used to make immigration arrests a violation of the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Bonta said he thinks it is unconstitutional “for ICE agents, federal immigration officers, to use race, the inability to speak English, location or perceived occupation to … stop and detain, search, seize Californians.”

He also decried what he described as the Supreme Court’s increasing reliance on its emergency docket, which he said often obscures the justices’ decision-making.

“It’s disappointing,” he said. “And the emergency docket has been used more and more. You often don’t know who has voted and how. There’s no argument. There’s no written opinion.”

Bonta called Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s opinion “very disturbing.”

The Trump-appointed justice argued that because many people who do day labor in fields such as construction or farming, engagement in such work could be useful in helping immigrant agents determine which people to stop.

Bonta said the practice enables “the use of race to potentially discriminate,” saying “it is disturbing and it is troubling.”

Governments and NGOs condemn Israel’s interception in international waters of the ship, which sought to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Israel has intercepted a Gaza-bound aid ship, preventing the 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, from reaching the blockaded Palestinian territory.

Israeli forces “forcibly intercepted” the Madleen in international waters overnight about 100 nautical miles (185km) from Gaza, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition NGO said in a statement on Monday. Al Jazeera lost contact with the vessel at 7:00 GMT.

Apart from Thunberg, those taken into custody by Israel are Palestinian French Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, Baptiste Andre, Pascal Maurieras, Yanis Mhamdi and Reva Viard from France; Thiago Avila from Brazil; Suayb Ordu from Turkiye; Sergio Toribio from Spain; Marco van Rennes from the Netherlands; Yasemin Acar from Germany; and Omar Faiad, a journalist with Al Jazeera Mubasher, also from France.

Israel has detained the crew for “interrogation”.

Here’s how the world has reacted:

Palestine

The interception of the Madleen is a “flagrant violation of international law”, Hamas said in a statement, calling for the activists on board to be released and saying it holds Israel “fully accountable for their safety”.

“Israel has no legal authority to restrict access to Palestine since such is within the exclusive right of the Palestinian people,” said the rights organisation Al-Haq, which is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Iran

“The assault on this flotilla, since it happened in international waters, is considered a form of piracy under international law,” said Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Turkiye

Israel’s interception of the Madleen is a “clear violation of international law” that “once again demonstrates that Israel is acting as a terror state”, Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

France

President Emmanuel Macron “has asked that our six French nationals be allowed to return to France as soon as possible,” said the Elysee Palace in a press release. “We have asked to be able to exercise our consular protection over them” and to “visit them”, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot added.

Spain

Spain has summoned Dan Poraz, charge d’affaires at the Israeli embassy in Madrid, reported the Spanish newspaper El Pais and Al Jazeera Arabic, quoting a source at Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Australia

The Jewish Council of Australia has expressed “grave concerns for the activists on board the Gaza Freedom Flotilla” and called “on the Australian government to urgently intervene to secure the immediate release of the vessel and safety of the crew”.

United States

“We strongly condemn the cowardly and illegal Israeli attack on the Madleen as it approached Gaza with desperately needed humanitarian supplies,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations said. “We applaud Greta Thunberg and the other activists of the Madleen who bravely risked their safety and freedom to help the starving people of Gaza.”

European Parliament

Israel’s seizure of the Madleen “outside Israeli territorial waters” is a “blatant violation of international law”, said The Left, the European Parliament faction that Hassan belongs to. “The arrest of the crew members and the confiscation of aid intended for a population in immediate humanitarian distress is unacceptable and is clearly part of a wider strategy to starve and massacre Palestinians in Gaza while hiding Israeli war crimes from the world.”

United Nations

“Madleen must be released immediately,” United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese said. “Breaking the siege is a legal duty for states and a moral imperative for all of us. Every Mediterranean port should send boats with aid, solidarity and humanity to Gaza. They shall sail together – united, they will be unstoppable.”

Amnesty International

“As the occupying power (as recognised by the ICJ [International Court of Justice]), Israel has a legal obligation to ensure civilians in Gaza have sufficient food and medicine. They should have let Madleen deliver its humanitarian supplies to Gaza,” said Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, asserting that Israel’s interception of the Madleen “violates international law”.