A court in Vietnam sentenced 43 people in a wide-ranging case for illegal gambling. The ring was run by four siblings who received between eight and 13 years in prison.
police are still on the hunt for an Indian national who allegedly headed up the entire enterprise
The network handled transactions totalling US$3.8bn between early 2020 and late 2021, after which law enforcement dismantled the operation. Some of the other defendants received sentences of over a decade in prison, while police are still on the hunt for an Indian national who allegedly headed up the entire enterprise.
People were gambling through websites using cryptocurrencies, which are not legal in Vietnam. Customers, of which there were 20,000 at the operation’s peak, were received rewards for referring new people through social media platforms, including Telegram, which has been banned in Vietnam since June.
Much of the ill-gotten gains were spent on real estate and luxury cars. They also laundered the money overseas; the money laundering is under investigation in a separate, ongoing probe.
