In May this year, Sister Sa’s team wrote two articles about the arrest of Qian Moumou, the main culprit in the Blue Sky Green case, in the UK. Just a few days ago, Qian Moumou (formerly known as Zhang Yadi and Huahua), who was suspected of illegally absorbing public deposits in the Blue Sky Green case and was also the main culprit in the UK’s largest Bitcoin case, pleaded not guilty to the charges of Bitcoin money laundering at the Southwark Criminal Court in London.
Today, let Sister Sa’s team talk to all of you old friends about this case, and by the way, take a look at Qian Moumou.
Who is Qian?
Qian's story is quite mysterious. It started in March 2014. Qian, also known as Huahua and Huajie, colluded with Ren (legal representative) and others to register Tianjin Green Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. in Tianjin, and used the company to promote, advertise and sell so-called "capital-guaranteed high-yield" short-term investment and financial products to the elderly. Of course, Ren was arrested as early as 2021. According to the confession of Ren, he met Qian through playing online games. Because he completely obeyed Qian Zhimin's command in the game, Qian asked him to serve as the legal representative of Blue Sky Green, but in fact it was just a figurehead, and the specific work was still arranged by Qian.
The investment period of these financial products of BlueSky Green is generally 6-30 months, and the annualized rate of return promised is at least 100% and at most 300%. In the era of lack of financial supervision, in just a few years, BlueSky Green established dozens of branches across the country through the viral spread of pyramid schemes, with more than 100,000 victims. It was by this illegal method of absorbing deposits from the elderly that Qian Moumou obtained tens of billions of huge funds in a short period of time.
But who is Qian? Even BlueSky Green’s investors know very little about his background. BlueSky Green’s official channels claim that Qian graduated from Tsinghua University and holds a doctorate from Tsinghua University.
However, the Sajie team searched for Qian's name through Tsinghua University's "Tsinghua People" App and found no alumni information, which means that Qian's identity as a "PhD of Tsinghua University" is probably fake. In addition, some investors have obtained information that Qian once studied in the United States and understands finance. He also had a car accident in China, and because of this, Qian had difficulty walking and breathing, and could only move around in a wheelchair.
"He had a car accident in China and usually moves around in a wheelchair. He has difficulty walking and breathing." This statement seems credible. Some self-media reported that Lantian Green held a promotion meeting in Beijing in 2016. At the promotion meeting, Qian Moumou was wearing a white veil and sitting in a wheelchair. In the aisle leading to the conference table, he was lifted up with the wheelchair. Everyone was holding up Qian Zhimin and shouting slogans. One of the slogans was "Give Green three years, and Green will give you three generations of wealth." It sounded like a crime.
Qian Moumou is not only very good at deceiving investors, giving them slogans that can make money, and directly shouting that three years can bring three generations of wealth, but he also has some business acumen and is an "old cuttlefish" in the cryptocurrency circle. Long before he used Blue Sky Green to absorb deposits, he had already discovered the huge business opportunities of Bitcoin mining.
In 2013, Qian took advantage of the first wave of Bitcoin’s popularity and opened a large-scale “mine”. He also announced that his “mine” could provide mining machine hosting services and promised an annualized rate of return of 300%. Through Bitcoin mining, Qian gradually realized the outstanding “advantages” of Bitcoin compared to other assets in fund transfer and money laundering. It was for this reason that Qian took advantage of the “window period” when the regulatory norms for crypto assets had not yet been issued and the global anti-crypto asset money laundering system had not yet been established, and asked Ren Jiangtao to convert the large amount of funds absorbed by Tianjin Ge Rui at that time into Bitcoin through platforms such as Huobi. This move is actually very smart, and it can be used for attack or retreat.
The model of Blue Sky Green can be said to be a typical illegal fund-raising model. There is not even the possibility of compliance. It is only a matter of time before it is "sanctioned".
On April 21, 2017, the public security organs filed a case against Lantian Green for suspected illegal absorption of public deposits. In June 2019, the Hedong Branch of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a notice that the public security organs had arrested 50 criminal suspects including Ren Jiangtao, the legal representative of Lantian Green, of which 28 had been transferred for review and prosecution. In February 2021, the Hedong District People's Court of Tianjin publicly tried the case of Ren Moumou, the legal representative of Lantian Green. Ren was tried together with his assistant Huang Moumou, who was also Ren's girlfriend. The court found out that from June 2014 to August 2017, when Ren Moumou served as the legal representative of Lantian Green, he participated in the illegal absorption of more than 40.2 billion yuan in public deposits; Huang participated in the illegal absorption of more than 17.6 billion yuan in public deposits. In September 2021, the court sentenced Ren to 10 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 yuan, and Huang to 5 years in prison and a fine of 250,000 yuan.
Qian denies all money laundering allegations - how to deal with the debt later?
After Ren was arrested, Qian's subsequent affairs became even more "legendary". She first used the alias "Zhang Yadi" and held a passport from St. Kitts and Nevis, and then entered the UK with that passport. When she entered the UK, she brought a laptop with her, which contained a Bitcoin cold wallet containing a large amount of funds raised illegally by BlueSky Green. Among them, the 128,000 Chinese investors involved have been actively seeking compensation, but they have always faced multiple difficulties such as cross-border debt collection, virtual currency ownership, and value conversion.
How much assets are involved in the case? According to the special audit of the Lantian Green case, from August 2014 to July 2017, Lantian Green absorbed more than 40.2 billion yuan in funds, all of which were controlled by Qian Zhimin. From April 2014 to August 2017, Lantian Green returned more than 34.1 billion yuan to 128,409 people, more than 95.68 million yuan for the purchase of jewelry, more than 91.89 million yuan for the purchase of real estate, more than 210 million yuan for daily operating expenses, and more than 120 million yuan for the Life Ring Customer Service Center project. In addition, it is worth noting that more than 1.14 billion yuan was used to buy Bitcoin. In other words, Qian Moumou was arrested in the UK this time, and he should have at least 1 billion yuan worth of virtual assets in his hands.
Regarding the disposal of these virtual assets, the UK Crown Prosecution Service issued an announcement on October 22 specifically informing Chinese victims: the agency had initiated civil recovery procedures for the assets frozen by the UK from Qian Moumou and others at the beginning of this year. The Crown Prosecution Service filed a civil recovery procedure with the High Court earlier this year. If no other individuals or entities claim rights to the criminal assets, half will belong to the British police and the other half will be assigned to the UK Home Office. The purpose is to facilitate the handling of the proceeds of crime and prevent further crimes.
Last words
As a domestic investor, how should I recover this part of the money? In fact, the UK has made it very clear that its approach is actually similar to the FTX case. The first step is to initiate a civil recovery procedure for the frozen assets in Qian Moumou's hands, and at least after the case is decided, the recovery progress will be promoted according to the registered claims.
There is no doubt that the process will take quite a long time (like the FTX case), and it may not be easy for Chinese investors to recover their losses. This is actually a reminder for the majority of investors. Why would they still fall for such an obvious scam? Again, if you invest, don’t be greedy. Once greed arises, I’m afraid the scam will come.
