I just read about a pretty impressive case that happened in the United Kingdom recently. It’s about Zhimin Qian, a Chinese scammer who ran one of the largest Ponzi schemes ever documented. The interesting part is the scale: we’re talking about over 128,000 victims deceived and nearly $6 billion in recovered cryptocurrency assets.

What caught my attention is how she operated. Zhimin Qian focused on vulnerable groups, especially the elderly and middle-aged people looking to grow their savings. She promised astronomical gains, something anyone experienced in crypto should recognize as a red flag. But apparently, it worked for years.

UK police managed to seize over 61,000 bitcoins in one of the largest cryptocurrency-related operations they’ve conducted. To give you an idea, that’s the largest seizure of cryptocurrencies in the country’s history. Qian had managed to escape China in 2017 with fake documents, but she was eventually captured.

At the end of September, she pleaded guilty to the charges. She now faces up to 14 years in prison for large-scale fraud and money laundering. What impacts me the most is that Zhimin Qian managed to sustain this scheme for so long and affect so many people. It’s an important reminder of why we need to be more cautious with promises of guaranteed returns in crypto, no matter how attractive they sound.