28 prosecuted in US$13.5mn online football betting case

Of these defendants, Pham Huy Toan, 38, director of the FAM Communications JSC, arranged for the other 27 to bet on the website fun88.com.

Toan was prosecuted for “organizing gambling” while the 27 others were charged with “gambling,” according to the indictment.

From March 2013 to July 2014, Toan used 58 bank accounts to receive and transfer more than VND301 billion (US$13.54 million) as wagers between his customers, and he pocketed nearly VND727 million (US$32,360) of the amount.

Each of the 27 bettors placed wagers ranging from dozens of millions of dong to billions of dong (VND1 billion equals US$44,510).

A customer counts U.S. dollar notes at a bank in Hanoi on November 29, 2010. Photo: Reuters

Many of them were state employees, company staffers, and students, such as Le Minh Hieu, a former executive at Long An General Hospital in the Mekong Delta province of Long An; Tran Hoang Hai, a former doctor at Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 Health Center; Tran Phu Quang, a staffer at the Metro Haiphong supermarket in the northern city of Haiphong; and Tran Ngoc Tam, a student at Hanoi Electricity University.

Football betting is banned in every form in Vietnam.

Many similar cases have been discovered in the country recently.

Police in Ho Chi Minh City last week said they had broken up an illegal online football betting ring run by a Korean man to serve his compatriots.

After days of investigation, police in District 7 raided a house in the Sky Garden 1 area in Tan Phong Ward on August 26, catching Lee Won Il, 32, of Korean nationality, operating a football betting website at www.CL-xxxx.com.

Lee had set up the site by himself to serve online football betting activities by other Koreans and get a commission of 10% for each wager, police said.

The commission would be transmitted to his bank account in the Republic of Korea.