A fraudster known as The Boss has been jailed for seven years for running an £8.5 million money laundering operation.
Wei Han, 36, shopped for designer goods, sent his daughter to a £3,500-a-term private school and drove a £73,000 Bentley from the criminal profits.
The Chinese national, below, told the taxman he earned £1,100 a year but had a £48,000 Maserati and a £39,000 Mercedes at his £5,600-a-month rented Chelsea home, as well as thousands of pounds worth of jewellery and watches.
“There was evidence of a very wealthy lifestyle that on the face of it he couldn’t afford,” said prosecutor David Markham.
Wei, along with his lieutenant Jie Huang, 25, used couriers to collect criminal cash and pay it into third-party accounts, then transferring it into Chinese currency, Southwark crown court heard on Friday.
The men used Wei’s rented £1.4 million home in Brook Mews North, Bayswater, for the money laundering operation.
When officers swooped last January they caught one of the couriers, Adam Fuller, 29, delivering £500,000 in cash which had been concealed in a custom-built “hide” inside a Mercedes.
Despite being in custody, Wei and Jie managed to hand operation controls to Wenqi Li, 26, using mobile phones smuggled into prison.
Judge Martin Griffith sentenced Wei to seven years, Jie to three years and four months and Wenqi and Fuller to two years and four months each. They all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money.
