The Laundromat – December Issue 2025

For this issue we have placed the spotlight on the crypto world and its many fraud schemes, featuring two so-called “crypto queens”. Their stories illustrate how critical it remains to implement legal requirements for this market and to prosecute fraud.

Topic of the Month: The Crypto Market – A Playground for Criminals

It is well known that criminals use cryptocurrencies for fraud and money laundering. It is just as clear that supervisory and law enforcement systems still struggle to keep pace with the dynamics, the technology and the global structures of this market.

How Fraudsters Exploit the Crypto Market

Criminals often pose as employees of seemingly reputable crypto platforms. Through calls, chats and fake websites they build trust and show victims allegedly fast-growing account balances in order to coerce further deposits. They frequently request remote access to the victims’ computers, open accounts at crypto exchanges in their names and move the money through numerous wallets so that the money trail appears like a dense and nested network.

The Role of Crypto Exchanges

Major crypto exchanges often act as hubs where illicit funds are deposited, shifted between coins in complex layering processes and eventually converted into fiat currency. This enables the criminal integration of funds into the financial system. Although exchanges are legally required to monitor and report suspicious activity, problematic accounts are still identified and frozen far too late.

Why Investigations in the Crypto Market Are So Challenging

Suspicious activity reports related to crypto fraud continue to rise, yet investigations are frequently impeded by staff shortages, lack of coordination among authority agencies and insufficient specialist knowledge. Many proceedings are closed prematurely and opportunities for asset recovery are missed. Authorities often hit limits long before they can fully trace financial flows. Criminals exploit these weaknesses using anonymous wallet addresses, complex transaction chains and international networks that hinder the identification of perpetrators.

The Scale of Losses Linked to Crypto Fraud

Investigations by SZ, NDR, WDR and others reveal that in only two years at least 28 billion dollars in illicit funds have flowed through crypto exchanges, a significant portion stemming from fraudulent crypto investment schemes. Specialized investigative units such as Germanys Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) or the Bavarian Cybercrime Centre have secured hundreds of millions of euros in crypto related cases, yet most victims never recover their funds.

Chinese Crypto Queen Imprisoned for Illegally Acquiring Bitcoin Worth Over 5 Billion Pounds

Forty-seven-year-old Qian Zhimin has been sentenced in London to eleven years and eight months for money laundering. She is considered playing a central role in a massive investment scam in China in which her company Lantian Gerui defrauded more than one hundred thousand mainly elderly investors of over 40 billion yuan (approximately $5.6 billion). The company had gained trust through patriotic messaging, celebrity endorsements and emotional appeals.
It promised high returns from investments in health products and bitcoin mining but paid out supposed profits using new investor funds in a classic Ponzi scheme. Qian fled to the United Kingdom in 2017 where she lived in luxury and converted large amounts of bitcoin into cash and real estate. Police seized tens of thousands of bitcoins during a raid, likely the largest crypto seizure in British history.
Many victims lost their life savings, went into debt or could no longer afford medical care. Qian mostly operated in the background, used the name Huahua and wrote in a poetic style. Her diary reveals plans to build an international banking empire, acquire a castle in Sweden and become queen of the unrecognized microstate of Liberland. Compensation for victims was something she would consider only if bitcoin prices rose significantly.
The bitcoins seized are now worth twenty times their value at the time of confiscation. A forthcoming court proceeding under the Proceeds of Crime Act will determine their fate. Victims intend to file claims, but legal obstacles and unclear ownership structures stand in the way and experts expect the assets to fall to the UK state. The full story about this Chinese crypto queen can be found on the BBC website.

OneCoin – How Another Crypto Queen Defrauded Investors of About $4 Billion

The US State Departments Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program is offering up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Ruja Ignatova. She is among the FBIs ten most wanted fugitives. Since around 2014 Ignatova and her associates are believed to have swindled billions from investors worldwide.
She founded OneCoin Ltd., a Bulgaria based company that marketed a supposed cryptocurrency that never actually existed. To carry out the fraud she allegedly used false claims and misleading presentations to attract investment. Victims were instructed to transfer funds to OneCoin accounts in order to purchase investment packages. The scheme is believed to have caused losses of more than $4 billion. Several sources suggest that she is currently in Dubai where extradition to law enforcement authorities is highly unlikely.
We recommend the German ARD documentary about the Bulgarian German crypto queen Ruja Ignatova.

In Case You Missed It – Your Money Laundering News Overview

Operation Chargeback

In early November 2025 media outlets worldwide reported on Operation Chargeback. On 4 November coordinated raids took place across nine countries with more than sixty searches and eighteen arrests. In Germany alone, twenty-nine properties were searched. Assets worth more than thirty-five million euros were secured. The case targets forty-four suspects from several countries including members of three laundering networks, executives of payment service providers, intermediaries, crime-as-a-service operators and an external risk manager.
Investigators dismantled global fraud and laundering networks that had used stolen credit card data to defraud more than 4.3 million cardholders in 193 countries through fake subscription services. Between 2016 and 2021 the network generated over nineteen million fake subscriptions and caused more than three hundred million euros in losses.
The group built professional fake websites primarily in the fields of streaming, dating and entertainment and used them to execute many small, hard to detect credit card charges. Four major German payment service providers were compromised, including one where special laundering software had been installed. Funds were channeled through numerous accounts resulting in more than one hundred thousand individual laundering actions.
The case originated from FIU analyses that identified a suspicious pattern based on multiple reports and shared findings with prosecutors and BaFin. The latter imposed restrictive supervisory measures. Authorities highlight the case as an example of the significant damage caused by digital financial crime, the growing complexity of cross border economic crime and the effectiveness of close cooperation based on the follow the money principle. Europol, the BKA and German national media like ARD Tagesschau covered the story extensively.

Money Laundering System of Chinese Underground Bankers Uncovered

US authorities have uncovered an extensive laundering system where Chinese underground bankers channeled illegally obtained cash mainly from Mexican drug cartels to wealthy Chinese high rollers in Las Vegas casinos. These players avoided Chinas currency controls by exchanging the cash for casino chips which turned cartel funds into seemingly legitimate gambling winnings.
Networks run by Lei Zhang and three other Chinese intermediaries were uncovered through surveillance and undercover operations and were handed comparatively lenient sentences for unlicensed money transmitting. Experts believe that hundreds of millions of dollars were laundered annually and that Chinese laundering systems play a central role for cartels and other organized crime. Further information is available from CNN.

Further Reading

Regulation of the Crypto Market – The MiCA Regulation

The European Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation establishes an EU wide regulatory framework for crypto assets to strengthen investor protection and ensure well-functioning markets. We recommend the WebID glossary entry with further information on the MiCA Regulation.