In a gated area in Hampstead, you’ll find the aptly-named Manor House adorned with six bedrooms, a lavish kitchen, decked terrace and numerous bathrooms. This used to be the residence of Jo Wen.
She cruised around in a black E-Class Mercedes-Benz, frequently shopped at Harrods, and enrolled her son in the esteemed £6,000-a-term Heathside preparatory school situated in an exclusive enclave of North London, namely Hampstead.
As is customary within these affluent areas, neighbours usually keep to themselves and don’t engage in over-the-fence chats or impromptu coffee visits. Thus, Jo Wen was able to maintain her anonymity.
Yet if anyone knew about her past lifestyle, they would have been taken aback by her extravagant living. Astonishingly, her former residence was under a Chinese takeaway in Southeast London, a place where she used to work.
So how did she come to reside in the Manor House?
Jo Wen has been convicted of laundering money, following a police seizure of over £2 billion in Bitcoins linked to massive investment fraud in her home country, China.
The fact is that the online digital currency, Bitcoin, with its discreet transaction process, allows financial transactions to occur outside traditional banking systems. Therefore, it is