12 days of hard work collecting thousands of billions of dong hidden by Phan Sao Nam

Phan Sao Nam is an important link in the chain of founding and operating a gambling ring worth tens of thousands of billions of dong, protected by two police generals. Since 2015, VTC Online Company, chaired by Nam, together with CNC Company of Nguyen Van Duong and Nam Viet Company, managed by Hoang Thanh Trung, the northern branch, have formed a "tripod" to develop the Rikvip gambling game.

Authorities allege that after two years of operation, the trio had profited nearly VND5,000 billion. Of this, Nam pocketed nearly VND1,500 billion. When the ring was shut down, Nam, Hoang Thanh Trung and a number of his "henchmen" fled abroad. However, after more than two months of being wanted, at the end of October 2017, he returned to surrender on a flight from Singapore landing at Tan Son Nhat (Ho Chi Minh City).

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Dinh Thi (Deputy Head of Economic Security Department, Phu Tho Provincial Police) said that Nam was identified through photos posted in newspapers and Facebook with a pale, scholarly appearance. Observing a person who looked like Nam but was dark and thin stepping out of the plane door, from a position about a meter away, Mr. Thi tried calling his name and Nam turned around in surprise. "I said the police would ensure his safety so he confidently followed him back," Lieutenant Colonel Thi recalled.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the police let Nam see his three sons for about 10 minutes, including the youngest son who was only a week old. Before leaving, Nam told his children to listen to their mother, saying "Daddy has to go away for a while."

Nam said he escaped to Singapore and then to Nepal, but was so troubled that he turned himself in. When he was transferred to Phu Tho Police, Nam asked for more time to think and exactly one week later confessed the whole story.

One day revealed the hiding place of more than 1,000 billion VND

As the investigation agency determined, Nam initially denied organizing gambling and only created an online game. The detectives spent several days analyzing the law before Nam admitted to having violated the law.

Nam wanted to "make amends" and asked to go out to call on his brothers to cooperate with the police, but the investigation team replied that it was "impossible".

The meeting between Nam and a leader of the security investigation agency was called the "trillion meeting" by the Investigation Committee because immediately afterwards he confessed where all the money he had benefited was and voluntarily handed it over.

Nam said he transferred 236 billion VND to relatives for savings and real estate purchases; deposited money in many places in the form of savings books, gold, cash, foreign currency, etc. Of which, Nam asked his friend Nguyen Manh Hung (in Quang Ninh) to keep 147 billion VND; deposited foreign currency and gold worth more than 140 billion VND in Ho Chi Minh City, asked Phi Quang Hung to deposit more than 100 billion VND, bought 11 apartments in his name, and deposited 3.5 million USD in a foreign bank.

Nam also confessed to transferring gold worth 530 billion VND to Hoang Thanh Trung's group for safekeeping. Because these defendants are on the run, the investigation agency has not been able to clarify their statements.

Prosecutor: No case has ever recovered money so quickly and in such a large amount.

In one day, Nam confessed where he hid all the money, but it took seven days for the investigation agency to determine whether it was true or not. The assigned team went to Ho Chi Minh City to collect savings; another team collected gold and foreign currency. One team went to Quang Ninh to collect cash. In 12 days, the authorities collected nearly 800 billion VND in cash, gold, and foreign currency.

Mr. Le Xuan Loc, representative of the People's Procuracy directly involved in the case from investigation to trial, said that in the history of Phu Tho's litigation, there has never been a case where so much money was recovered so quickly.

The large sum of money Nam said he hid at his friend's house in Quang Ninh, at first the investigation agency did not believe how he could leave it so exposed. Leading the detectives to the place, the homeowner then realized that the two boxes Nam asked to store were actually money boxes. The warehouse had no lock, in the corner of the house were two boxes (80cm high, more than 2m long, 80cm wide) covered with tarpaulin. Prying open the lids, inside were piles of money up to 40cm high.

"It took 10 people to carry those two boxes to the car and take them to the bank," said an investigator. Phan Sao Nam was immediately taken to the bank to witness the counting. From 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., 7 money counting machines worked at full capacity to finish counting, totaling 147 billion VND.

Nam said he deposited about 375 billion VND at a friend's house in Ho Chi Minh City, but when the prosecution agency verified, the amount in the savings book was up to 375 billion VND.

According to a security officer investigating, Nam stated that there was no change. Nam himself provided information about the total revenue of the game, which was saved on his personal computer, but when the authorities arrived, all cash accounting and transactions had been erased by an "invisible hand".

Before the first instance trial held at the end of 2018, when the lawyer asked if he agreed with the prosecution agencies to sell the seized assets and pay them into the state budget, Nam agreed. Nam also agreed to sell the only house his family was living in (bought with savings in 2013 - before the time of organizing the card game) to overcome the execution of the judgment.

The presiding judge of the first instance trial also said that before the trial, Nam had sent the panel of judges a statement about his thoughts and hesitations when declaring to the investigation agency about the assets of more than 1,300 billion VND that he had submitted. The defendant analyzed that if he deposited the money in the bank, he would earn 200 million VND in interest every day, but he realized that he had committed a crime and agreed to return the money.

As of the first instance trial (November 2018), the investigation agency was temporarily holding more than 800 billion VND from Nam, freezing 77 billion VND in bank accounts, seizing two houses, worth 12.4 billion VND according to the contract; freezing 13 apartment purchase contracts, worth 139 billion VND, and temporarily holding 5 cars. The total amount of money and assets that Nam had paid was more than 1,300 billion VND.

At the trial, Nam was sentenced to 5 years in prison for two crimes.: Gambling and Money LaunderingThe defendant did not appeal.

The indictment determined that Phan Sao Nam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director of VTC Online Company, had qualifications and knowledge of information technology, but for personal purposes, accepted the request of Hoang Thanh Trung (Director of the software center of VTC Intecom Company) to find a partner to release software to organize gambling in the form of card games Rikvip/Tip.Club.

Knowing that Duong's CNC company was a front company for the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department (C50, Ministry of Public Security), Nam cooperated in business.After 27 months of operation, the line has linked up with many service providers and built a system of 25 level I agents and nearly 6,000 level II agents to provide services of converting virtual game points into real money and vice versa.

The defendants in the ring attracted nearly 43,000 accounts to register for online gambling, earning a total illegal profit of more than VND9,850 billion. After deducting investment and operating costs, the ring earned VND4,700 billion.