Recently, two former provincial officials in Vietnam were sentenced to prison for participating in an illegal gambling ring, which involved amounts up to $106 million. The case has attracted widespread attention as it includes government officials and business figures. The core of the case is an underground casino operated by a South Korean citizen in a five-star hotel in Hanoi, suspected of allowing local citizens to gamble using forged identities.
Background and Scale of the Case
The illegal gambling ring was based in the "King's Club" inside the Pullman Hotel in Hanoi, officially only open to foreign tourists, but the prosecution accuses it of attracting local gamblers through forged membership cards. The ring involved over 140 members, including government officials, Communist Party members, corporate executives, and entertainers, making it a large-scale operation.
Main Defendants' Sentences
The former vice-chairman of the People's Committee of Fushou Province, He Dayong, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for participating in 95 gambling events, with stakes exceeding $7 million. The former Communist Party secretary of Heping City, Wu Yude, was sentenced to three years for gambling about $4.2 million. Both were key defendants in the case.
Fugitive Mastermind and Case Follow-up
The mastermind behind the scenes, Kim In-seong (a South Korean citizen), is on the run, accused of fleeing Vietnam with $9 million, and an international arrest warrant has been issued. On the same day, the Hanoi court sentenced four accomplices to prison terms ranging from two to four years, with one person receiving a suspended sentence. Over a hundred more people are still to be tried in the case, with gamblers only recovering about 0.22% of the bets.
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