Revealing a trillion-dollar gambling ring involving the former Chief of Police

On the afternoon of March 11, the Ministry of Public Security officially informed that the Investigation Security Agency of Phu Tho Provincial Police had issued a decision to prosecute and order the temporary detention of Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former Major General, Director of the Department of High-Tech Crime Prevention (C50) under the General Department of Police (Ministry of Public Security) for organizing gambling.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former Major General, Director of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department (C50) - Ministry of Public Security.

Earlier on the same day, the President signed a decision to strip Nguyen Thanh Hoa of his title of People's Public Security.

According to sources, since late 2017, the Investigation Security Agency of Phu Tho Province Police has initiated a criminal case of "Using the Internet to commit acts of property appropriation, organizing gambling, gambling, illegal purchase and sale of invoices and money laundering occurring in Phu Tho and a number of provinces and cities". The investigation discovered a gambling ring via the Internet on an extremely large scale, with the participation of thousands of people at home and abroad.

This gambling ring was run by two individuals, Phan Sao Nam, former Chairman of VTC Online, a company specializing in online games, and Nguyen Van Duong, in Hanoi. This ring operated by selling disguised gambling games on the internet.

Notably, with the responsibility of the police force to prevent high-tech crimes, when discovering violations, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa, instead of preventing them, also had activities that were of a "protective" nature for this line.

This also explains why this line operated for a long time with transaction amounts of up to thousands of billions of dong before being discovered and arrested. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa was identified as an accomplice of the gambling subjects in the line.

Since late 2017, Mr. Hoa and many officials of C50 have been suspended from their positions and work to review related violations.

However, the source said that this investigation has not stopped at holding Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa personally responsible, but may also include some officials who held higher positions.

Up to this point, the Phu Tho Provincial Police Investigation Agency has prosecuted about 80 defendants and arrested 38 people for the following acts: organizing gambling; gambling; money laundering; and fraud and property appropriation.

Among those prosecuted, there are Phan Sao Nam, Nguyen Van Duong and the prosecution of defendant Nguyen Thanh Hoa is the latest development. At the same time, assets and exhibits related to the above acts were seized, amounting to more than 1,000 billion VND.