Prosecution of former Director General of General Department of Police Phan Van Vinh

Lieutenant General Phan Van Vinh. Photo: Tuoi Tre Document

Mr. Vinh was prosecuted under Article 356 of the Penal Code for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties".

The above decisions and orders have been approved by the People's Procuracy of Phu Tho province.

Previously, Phu Tho Police issued a decision to prosecute the criminal case of Using the Internet to commit acts of property appropriation, organizing gambling, gambling, illegal trading of invoices and money laundering occurring in Phu Tho and a number of provinces and cities.

Based on the results of the investigation, there is sufficient evidence to determine that the Investigation Security Agency of Phu Tho Provincial Police has decided to prosecute Mr. Phan Van Vinh.

Before being prosecuted, Mr. Vinh held the rank of Lieutenant General.

Regarding this case, on March 11, the Investigation Security Agency of Phu Tho Province Police issued a decision to prosecute and arrest the accused to temporarily detain for 4 months Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa - former Director of the High-Tech Police Department to investigate the crime of "Organizing gambling" as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 249 - Penal Code 1999.

Although he was the director of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department, when he discovered the violations, Mr. Hoa did not prevent or handle them, but instead assisted and "protected" this gambling ring.

Therefore, the large-scale gambling ring had been operating for a long time before being discovered and "taken down".

So far, the investigation agency has clarified that Mr. Phan Sao Nam is the person who provided software and copyright for the electronic game portal to Mr. Nguyen Van Duong. The defendant Duong has the role of operating 2 electronic game portals named Rikvip and Tip.club.

The investigation agency has sufficient documents and evidence to prove that the amount of money with material value to determine criminal responsibility of the subjects participating in gambling is about more than 2,700 billion VND.

This is a transnational gambling ring because millions of dollars have been transferred abroad. So far, authorities have collected about 1,300 billion VND and the amount of foreign currency transferred abroad according to initial statistics is estimated at 3.6 million USD.

Up to now, the Security Investigation Agency has prosecuted more than 80 cases.The defendants include Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa and Mr. Phan Van Vinh, former police generals.

Mr. Phan Van Vinh, former Director General of the General Department of Police (Ministry of Public Security), was born in 1955 in Ngo Dong town, Giao Thuy district, Nam Dinh.

Before holding the position of Director General of the General Department of Police, Mr. Vinh was the Director of Nam Dinh Provincial Police.

Mr. Vinh was also a delegate of the 12th National Assembly of Vietnam, belonging to the Nam Dinh delegation, Hero of the People's Armed Forces.

Mr. Vinh was famous for directing the suppression of crime.

During his career in the industry, the cases that left a strong impression on Mr. Phan Van Vinh were the investigation of the massacre in Bac Giang carried out by Le Van Luyen and the arrest of "boss" Kien.

Mr. Vinh is the head of the steering committee investigating the massacre caused by Le Van Luyen. He is also the head of the task force that arrested "boss" Kien.

General Phan Van Vinh resigned from the position of Director General of the General Department of Police in April 2017 to retire according to the regime.

At the press conference of the Ministry of Public Security on January 15, some reporters raised questions about information posted on social media that Mr. Phan Van Vinh and Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa (Director of the Department of High-Tech Crime Prevention, Ministry of Public Security) were involved in protecting a gambling ring worth thousands of billions.

Lieutenant General Tran Dang Yen said that the police have initiated a criminal investigation into the gambling case in Phu Tho. The Ministry of Public Security has assigned its professional and functional forces to coordinate with the Phu Tho Police and assigned the Director of the Phu Tho Provincial Police to direct the investigation.

According to Lieutenant General Yen, any information on social networks that is discovered during the investigation will be strictly handled.