83 people appeared in court at the appeal hearing of the gambling case worth tens of thousands of billions.

This morning (March 5), the High People's Court in Hanoi opened an appeal hearing to consider the appeals of 36 people and the protest of the Phu Tho People's Procuracy against 47 people in the online gambling case involving former police chief Phan Van Vinh.

The trial is scheduled to last for eight days at the Phu Tho Provincial People's Court, where the first instance trial will be held. Senior Judge Nguyen Vinh Quang will preside over the appeal hearing. Thirty-six of the 92 defendants have filed appeals asking for a reduced sentence, suspended sentences, or fines instead of jail time.

In addition to the defendants' appeal, the People's Procuracy of Phu Tho province also appealed the first instance judgment. Accordingly, the People's Procuracy requested the High People's Court in Hanoi to review the case in the direction of not applying the aggravating circumstance of "organized crime" to the 27 defendants who committed the crime.Gambling organizationin the category of first-level agents or higher; request the appellate court to apply mitigating circumstances to criminal liability for defendants who have remedied half or more of the illegal profits.

Finally, the People's Procuracy of Phu Tho province requested the appellate court not to confiscate the money used for gambling of the 43 defendants who committed the crime.Gamble.

The appeal stated that, according to the first instance verdict, Phan Sao Nam (former chairman of VTC online), Hoang Thanh Trung (former director of Nam Viet company, currently on the run), Nguyen Van Duong (chairman of CNC company) connected, cooperated to establish and operate an online gambling organization through card game portals: Rikvip/Tipclub, 23zdo, Zon/Pen...

From April 19, 2015 to August 29, 2017, nearly 43 million game accounts were registered. On August 9, 2016, there were more than 18 million game accounts with real players, of which nearly 300,000 accounts had phone numbers attached.

The total amount of money deposited into the Rikvip, 23Zdo, Zon/Pen card game systems operated by Nguyen Van Duong and his accomplices is nearly 10,000 billion VND. This figure is incomplete because there is no data from June 24, 2017 to the end date of August 29, 2018.

After deducting investment and operating costs, the line received 4,700 billion VND. Of the above amount, Phan Sao Nam received nearly 1,500 billion VND, Nguyen Van Duong pocketed more than 1,650 billion VND, the group that established and operated the other line, Phan Anh Tuan, Hoang Thanh Trung and Le Van Kien (currently on the run), received more than 1,570 billion VND.

Regarding Nguyen Van Duong, the investigation agency temporarily detained and confiscated two savings books with the amount of 150 billion VND, temporarily detained 95 million VND and some foreign currency during the search... At Nguyen Van Duong's request, his wife voluntarily paid the security investigation agency more than 4 billion VND to remedy the consequences. Nguyen Van Duong voluntarily sold the CNC company headquarters and paid 61 billion VND. The authorities temporarily detained four cars and froze more than 8 billion VND in his bank account.

Nguyen Van Duong was accused of being the leader of a group of people who operated card games and organized gambling, causing particularly serious consequences. The first instance verdict sentenced him to 10 years in prison for the crime.Gambling organization, Money laundering.

Regarding Phan Sao Nam, the investigation agency is temporarily holding more than 800 billion VND, 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 five cars. As of the first instance trial, the total amount of money and assets that Nam agreed to use to remedy the consequences amounted to more than 1,300 billion VND. Phan Sao Nam was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

However, the People's Procuracy believes that both Phan Sao Nam and Nguyen Van Duong are not entitled to the mitigating circumstance of "voluntarily remedying the consequences".

Among the 92 people tried at first instance, former Director General of the General Department of Police Phan Van Vinh was sentenced to 9 years, and former Director of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department Nguyen Thanh Hoa was sentenced to 10 years in prison, both for the same crime.Abuse of power while performing official duties.

In addition to Nam and Duong, the remaining 88 defendants received the lowest penalty of 40 million VND and the highest of 3 years and 6 months in prison for the following crimes:Money laundering, Illegal trading of invoices, Organizing gambling, Gambling, Using the internet to appropriate property.

After the trial, defendants Phan Van Vinh, Nguyen Thanh Hoa, Nguyen Van Duong, Phan Sao Nam and 52 others did not appeal.