Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Public Security (MoPS) has officially announceda crackdown on “using the internet to appropriate assets, organise gambling, gamble,illegally trade invoices and launder money in Phu Tho province and some otherprovinces and cities.”

The announcement was issued after a number ofdomestic newspapers ran inaccurate reports on the investigation into andinitial investigation outcomes of the case. The ministry did not clarify whichparts of which reports were inaccurate.

The ministry said many organisations and personstook advantage of information technology and the internet to organise onlinegambling rings through betting or card games. Among those card games, Rikvip,which was later renamed Tip.club, was organised in a sophisticated manner and ona large scale, attracting millions of gamblers with trillions of VND.

Rikvip began operations on April 18, 2015 on thewebsites rikvip.com and rikvip.vn, featuring 42 games simulating differentforms of gambling. It was renamed Tip.club in August 2016 and operated asmobile and computer applications.

To join the games, gamblers created accounts andsent money to buy virtual scores, called RIK, to those accounts throughpre-paid telecom cards (Viettel, Mobifone, Vinaphone), game cards (Zing, Gate,Vcoin, Megacard, GoCoin, Vcard), and bank accounts, or directly buy virtualscores at Rikvip agencies.

After winning or losing games, gamblers couldconvert RIK into money by selling RIK to Rikvip agencies or selling pre-paidtelecom card numbers and game card numbers, sending money to telephoneaccounts, or by using payment gateways.

To help gamblers send money to their gameaccounts, gambling organisers used legal entities they set up to connect withpayment gateways (VNPT EPAY, Ngan Luong, HOMEDIRECT, Giai tri so) so gamblerscould use pre-paid telecom cards and game cards to send money. They also usedthe National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS) services to help gamblerssend money to game accounts from bank accounts while issuing Vcard and GoCoingame cards with the same purpose.

The gambling organisers set up a system of gamblingagencies nationwide, including 25 tier-1 agencies and 5,852 tier-2 agencies.

Thanks to the convenient payment system andwidespread advertising online, Rikvip/Tip.club attracted a large number ofgamers, becoming the disguised gambling system with the largest  scale and revenue in Vietnam, according to theMoPS.

The investigation found that from April 18, 2015to August 29, 2017, there were 42,956,715 accounts on the Rikvip/Tip.clubsystem. Each gambler had an average of three accounts, so the total gamblerscould number more than 14 million.

After investigating, in August 2017, the MoPSdecided to prepare to tackle the case. At the same time, police of northern PhuTho province were probing a case of “using the internet to appropriate assets”in the province and carried out legal procedures against some suspects involvedin the tier-1 agencies in the MoPS’s investigation. Leaders of the ministry assignedthe investigation to the Investigation Security Agency under the Department ofPublic Security of Phu Tho province.

On August 29, 2017, the Investigation Security Agencyunder the Department of Public Security of Phu Tho province, launched legalprocedures against persons and organisations involved in the organisation ofgambling through Rikvip/Tip.club.

With the permission of the Party Central Committee’sSecretariat, on March 11, 2018, the Investigation Security Agency launchedlegal proceedings against and detained Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former director of theMoPS’s police department for high-tech crimes, for organising gambling.

Phan Sao Nam (born in 1979, former Chairmanof the Board of Directors and Director of the VTC Online TelecommunicationsCompany – VTC online) and Nguyen Van Duong (born in 1975, former Chairman ofthe Member Council of the Hi-tech Security Development and Investment Ltd. Co. –CNC) are accused of being the masterminds behind the ring. 

Meanwhile, Hoang Thanh Trung (born in 1978,Deputy Director of the Nam Viet Investment Development Service Co. Ltd andformer Director of the VTC Technology and Digital Content Company – VTC Intecom)was also arrested for his deep involvement in the case.

The offence was supported by many persons, theministry noted, adding that as of March 14, 2018, the investigation agencylaunched legal proceedings against 83 persons. Among them, 41 persons wereprosecuted for the charge of organising gambling, 38 for gambling, four for illegallytrading invoices, two for laundering money and one using the internet toappropriate assets.

Police are currently detaining 31 persons,banning 42 from leaving their living places and hunting for eight others. Two peopleare out on bail.

The probe initially found that the money paidvia legal and illegal payment gateways exceeded 9.58 trillion VND (around 422million USD), including more than 9.29 trillion VND via pre-paid telecom cardsand game cards, accounting for 97 percent of the total money involved. About168 billion VND (7.4 million USD) was sent from bank accounts.

Police have so far seized assets (cash andhouses) worth nearly 1.24 trillion VND (54.5 million USD) in total and 12 cars.

The probe into the case is being expanded.-VNA