HCMC – The HCMC Police Department on December 2 announced that it had cracked down on a large online gambling ring worth nearly VND88 trillion, the largest ever in the city.
The Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention, under the HCMC Police Department, coordinated with the relevant agencies to bust the gambling ring led by Huynh Long Bach, Nguyen Dac Quy, Huynh Long Nhu and Pham Thi Mai Ngan.
The four were arrested on December 2 for allegedly organizing the ring, the local media reported.
Earlier, the police had detained 59 others for allegedly gambling and running the gambling ring and seized multiple exhibits, including nearly VND3 billion, over US$19,000 and AUD40,000 in cash, six autos worth some VND20 billion, many land use rights certificates and land sale contracts.
According to investigators, Bach and his accomplices organized the online gambling on two websites, Swiftonline.live and Nagaclubs.com, which had been changed several times and connected to the international betting platform Evolution.com.
To attract gamblers, they promised to refund the money if gamblers lost the games and pay commissions to those enticing others to participate in the ring, thus extending the ring nationwide.
Bach and his accomplices also used social networks to invite participants under high-profit financial investment.
Gamblers would register for virtual currency wallets on an overseas platform and use their bank accounts to buy virtual currencies for the games.
When the number of participants was high, the accused would crash relating websites to appropriate money in players’ virtual money accounts and avoid being investigated by the competent agencies.