Phan Van Vinh case: Special trial in the history of litigation

The 235-page indictment prosecuted 92 defendants for the crimes of Gambling, Organizing Gambling, Money Laundering, Abusing Position While Performing Official Duty, Illegal Trading of Invoices, and Using the Internet to Appropriate Property.

There were approximately more than 200 people participating in the proceedings. Among them were 14 witnesses, 3 investigators, and more than 30 lawyers. 73 people and units with related rights and obligations were also summoned to court.

Among the parties with related rights and obligations summoned to court are: Mibifone Telecommunications Corporation, Home Direct Service Joint Stock Company, VNPT Electronic Payment Joint Stock Company (EPAY), Ngan Luong Joint Stock Company, VTC Online Media Joint Stock Company (VTC Online), GATE Online Joint Stock Company, Hanoi Information, Communication and Technology Development Investment Joint Stock Company, Payment Solutions Joint Stock Company (Vnpay), Saigon Bridge and Road Construction Investment Group Joint Stock Company...

In this case, the head of the agency with the highest authority in the fight against high-tech crimes has condoned others from committing crimes, effectively preventing subordinate agencies or coordinating agencies from verifying and handling the criminals.

The indictment determined that the revenue from this gambling organization was nearly 10,000 billion VND, of which individuals benefited nearly 5,000 billion.

The online gambling revenue was divided among many units that the defendants cooperated with. These units benefited from thousands of billions of dong from the money earned from crime, which the investigation agency proposed to confiscate.

28 months of sin

According to the indictment of the People's Procuracy of Phu Tho province, the thousand-billion-dong gambling case that occurred in Phu Tho and several other provinces and cities was caused by Nguyen Van Duong and his accomplices taking advantage of high technology, with the assistance of Mr. Phan Van Vinh and Nguyen Thanh Hoa - people with positions and powers in agencies assigned by the State to fight and prevent high-tech crimes.

After 28 months of operating the software program and technology solutions integrating the card games Rikvip/Tip.Club, 23Zdo/Pen, the subjects in the game operation group have linked up with many service providers and built a system of 25 "level 1 agents", 5,877 "level 2 agents" to provide services of converting virtual points in the game into real money and vice versa.

42,950,805 accounts registered to participate in online gambling.

The total amount of money the defendants illegally earned through depositing money and cards into illegal gambling services was more than VND9,853 billion, causing particularly serious consequences.

On August 8 and 9, 2016 alone, there were 518 player accounts that showed signs of constituting the crime of Gambling (only detailed data of gambling sessions on the above 2 days was collected).

Due to the limitation of the investigation period prescribed by law, in this case, the prosecution agencies of Phu Tho province have only been able to initiate an investigation of 105 defendants.

Of these, 12 defendants are on the run, wanted without results, and 1 defendant has a serious illness. The investigation agency has separated the files and will handle these defendants later when conditions are met.

Other subjects with sufficient signs of crime will be considered and handled in phase 2 of the case.