Between 2014 and 2017 thousands of ordinary Chinese people handed their money over to a company that promised them fabulous riches by helping them to ride the wave of the future - cryptocurrency. That vision collapsed when the shadowy figure behind it, Qian Zhimin, fled to the UK with a Bitcoin stash bought with their money.
She settled down in London, planning her comeback as the Queen of Liberland, a scrap of land on the banks of the Danube. But her downfall began when she botched an attempt to buy a north London mansion. This alerted the police, who arrested Qian and seized a stash of Bitcoin now worth billions of dollars.
Many investors put everything they had into the company. Several have now told the BBC how they were persuaded to invest, and how the company’s collapse led to personal and financial ruin.
Now, as Qian is sentenced, the question remains: will the victims get their money back?
