Svmuu News: A fraud review commissioned by the British government recommends that the Judicial College provide training to all judges and magistrates in England and Wales to address the rise in cases involving AI scams and money laundering using cryptocurrency.
The report concludes that the Fraud Act 2006 is generally adequate for addressing AI scams, but that the problem lies in the courts’ lack of preparedness to hear such cases.The report recommends evaluating whether the existing “long and complex trials” course should be updated or replaced with specialized modules on fraud and related crimes, and considers making training mandatory for judges likely to hear complex fraud cases.
The report states that fraud may soon account for half of all crime in England and Wales, with an estimated 4.1 million cases occurring in the year ending June 2025, affecting 1 in every 14 adults and 1 in every 4 businesses.The Financial Ombudsman Service estimates that more than half of current investment scams involve crypto assets.
The report also references the case of Qian Zhimin, who operated a Ponzi scheme in China, defrauding more than 128,000 victims of approximately 5 billion pounds and laundering the proceeds into Bitcoin.This case resulted in the largest confirmed seizure in British history Bitcoin, totaling more than 61,000 BTC. Qian Zhimin was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months in prison at Southwark Crown Court in November.