Nguyen Thanh Hoa (born in 1958 in Binh Dinh province) is a former senior officer of the Ministry of Public Security, who held the position of Director of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department. He became an accomplice with Nguyen Van Duong in the billion-dong gambling network related to the RikVip gaming portal.
Prior to this case, Nguyen Thanh Hoa achieved notable accomplishments in his career, particularly in combating high-tech crimes. He successfully led the C50 Department in investigating and cracking down on internet scams and online gambling.
However, according to the indictment, during his tenure as Director of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department, Nguyen Thanh Hoa protected the CNC Company, a company owned by Nguyen Van Duong, to carry out gambling activities through the RikVip gaming portal. On March 11, 2018, he was stripped of the title “People’s Police” and subsequently prosecuted for the charge of “Organizing gambling.”
In the RikVip gambling case, Nguyen Thanh Hoa committed violations related to the CNC Company, a company owned by Nguyen Van Duong. In 2011, Hoa proposed the establishment of a shell company for CNC, with the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department contributing 20% of the capital and appointing an IT person in charge.
Subsequently, Nguyen Thanh Hoa met Nguyen Van Duong to finalize the transformation of the CNC Company into a shell https://nguyenvanduong.net company. Hoa believed that this company would generate revenue to build a national defense system against cybercrime. However, Hoa suggested not contributing capital but still receiving 20% of the profits and allowing CNC to launch online gambling games.
Before allowing CNC to release gambling games on the internet, Phan Van Vinh, another defendant in the case, made the decision to transform the company into a shell company. In addition, Hoa participated in drafting documents for Phan Van Vinh to sign, legitimizing the RikVip and 23zdo gaming portals to the Ministry of Public Security.
It is evident that when knowing about the gambling activities of Nguyen Van Duong’s CNC Company, Nguyen Thanh Hoa did not intervene or handle it like other cases. Instead, he deliberately advised and issued multiple documents to facilitate the gambling operations of the CNC Company.
When the Ministry of Public Security requested a report on the gambling activities of the two gaming portals, Nguyen Thanh Hoa showed signs of violating the law and not complying with the directives. The indictment stated that his report was not truthful, and his purpose was to cover up the violations of the CNC Company and Nguyen Van Duong.
During the investigation, the prosecuting authorities believed that Nguyen Thanh Hoa had signs of protection and bribery in the process of legitimizing the gambling activities of the RikVip gaming portal. However, there was not enough evidence to determine personal gain by Hoa. Therefore, he was charged with the offense of “Abusing position and power while performing official duties” instead of personal enrichment.