Chinese Criminals Imprisoned For £55 Million Money Laundering Scheme In London

A Chinese gang that laundered more than £55m money and organized fake transactions across London has been put behind bars for not less than 25 years.

Stoke Newington officers confirmed “an operation that took three years to investigate an international money-laundering syndicate through Chinese underground banking,” stated media sources.

Police officers established that “more than £ 55m had been laundered between February 2020 and June 2023, and seven members of organized criminal groups received a total of 24 years and 11 months of imprisonment.”

How Did They Lead This Money Laundering Scheme?

Chinese gang has been given ‘jail terms for operating a secret money laundering operation that preyed on overseas university students who wished to avoid legislation that prohibited exporting money from China,’ stated media sources.

The leader of the gang, “Qiji Wang, 29, was using a Chinese messaging application called ‘There is a Big Sun in the Sky’ to execute unlawful activities and he has been sentenced to 12 years.”

On Monday 19 August, 4 individuals—one woman and three men appeared in “Snaresbrook Crown Court”, pleading guilty to a series of money laundering offenses.

Three others were found guilty of similar offenses in June and handed prison terms of as low as 11 months and as high as 12 years, stated sources.

Why They Opted For Chinese Underground Banking Approach?

For foreign currency rules, currently, a single Chinese person is allowed to take not more than $50, 000 or its equivalent per year from China for his personal use. A citizen must make transactions through the Chinese bank in a foreign currency account to keep the currency limit in place.

Some individuals bypass this currency threshold by participating in underground banking, stated media sources.

In February 2019, a report by the National Crime Agency (NCA) stated that this kind of money transfer is likely “widespread among the Chinese community living in the UK.”

How Stoke Newington Crime Team Lead Continuous Investigation?

Crime officers seized more than 500,000 pounds worth of assets belonging to a group during an operation in December 2022 where they executed two simultaneous search warrants.

Over £104,000 was discovered in a shopping bag concealed in a wardrobe when authorities investigated the first address of “Yin Ying Wang, 28, and Xiaoyu Shu, 29, in London’s Canary Wharf.”

In the course of the second search warrant— two money-counting machines and sacks of cash were discovered at the address of Yunchen Huang, 28. Officers also confiscated group property valued at over £500,000 in total.

Authorities in Stoke Newington, a neighborhood in north London were quick to detect that “Shu and Huang who were trying to sell British pounds to university students using an application developed in China were actually circumventing the foreign exchange limit.”

Apart from that, “they also discovered that Shu and Huang were employed by a person who set up the two of them to get substantial sums of money—up to £250,000 at a time.”

“The two were forbidden from revealing the names of those from whom they were receiving cash and were directed to take a photograph of a £5 note with a distinctive serial number. The courier then received the picture, making it impossible for either party to recognize the other if the police intervened, thus preventing identity information from passing,” stated the officer.

The Gang Operated An Unregistered Business

Additionally, officers discovered that “Canary Wharf residents Ang Li, 26, and Peng Liu, 28, were funding the gang by conducting a money service without registration.”

In June 2023, suspecting the scheme, the authorities searched their Canary Wharf address

and took  £14,600 and cash counting devices.

The 28-year-old Manchester resident Ruolan Chen is charged with supporting the gang by running an unregistered money services enterprise.

Later on, the officers were able to verify that Qiji Wang, a 29-year-old resident of Manchester, was the group’s mastermind. At his residence, authorities discovered a money-counting machine, numerous cell phones, computers, and bank cards under different names during their investigation.

One of the members from Stoke Newington’s proactive crime team: DC. Zach Rowe stated: “Thanks to the dedication and persistence of highly skilled Met officers to improve the quality of Met officer service, we have successfully disrupted a sophisticated economic crime operation. The very volume of this money laundering will thus result in crimes such as drug dealing, prostitution, human trafficking, etc.”

“This outcome and the three-year investigation that preceded it demonstrate that, regardless of how difficult the case may be, we will stop at nothing to apprehend anyone who would use the proceeds of illicit activity to further their financial interests,” he added

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“The group laundered large quantities of money—more than £55 million—on behalf of persons engaged in organized crime,” he added further.

“This triumphant prosecution has mitigated the criminal involvement and has further resulted in the prevention of misdeeds and interference with the involved parties,” he shared.

The Met is utilizing advanced technology to tackle criminal behavior linked to serious and organized crime, as seen by the creation of a New Met for London, stated sources.