At the trial (Photo: VNA) Phu Tho (VNA) – The Hanoi High-Level People’s Court opened an appeal trial on an onlinegambling case involving former senior police officers and trillions of dong inthe northern province of Phu Tho on March 5.
The eight-daytrial, held at the appeal of the Phu Tho People’s Procuracy and defendants,will try 83 defendants.
The defendants will not include twoformer senior police officers Phan Van Vinh and Nguyen Thanh Hoa, who did notappeal their sentences of 9 years and 10 years in prison, respectively, forabusing their position and power.
Two other defendants in the first-instance trial, Phan Sao Nam (former Chairmanof the Board of Directors of the VTC Online Telecommunications Co. (VTC Online)and Nguyen Van Duong (former Chairman of the Members Council of the Hi-techSecurity Development and Investment Co. (CNC) did not lodge appeals but they havebeen requested by the procuracy to be present at the trial.
However, Duong, Nam and 24 other defendants asked to be absent from the trial.
At the first instance trial, Nam was given five years and Duong 10 yearson two charges of organising gambling and laundering money.
The first trial on the case was held from November 12-30, 2018 by the Phu ThoPeople’s Court involving 92 defendants.
After that, the Phu Tho People’s Procuracyappealed the verdict, asking the Hanoi High-Level People’s Court to review three issues, including theapplication of aggravating circumstances to 27 defendants and extenuatingcircumstances to 36 defendants. The procuracy also appealed against the confiscationof money used in gambling of 43 defendants.
Besides, 83 defendants filed appeals orpetitions against the verdict.
The online gambling ring through the card gameRikvip/Tip.club was led by Phan Sao Nam and Nguyen Van Duong.
The ring included 25 tier-1 outlets, 5,877tier-2 outlets and 42,956,718 gambling accounts. It was found to have gainedmore than 9.85 trillion VND (428.2 million USD) in revenue from onlinegambling.-VNA
VNA
