Police in China have repatriated a man suspected of orchestrating a $73 million illegal online sports betting platform.
Detectives said the man, surnamed Huang, launched the Wanhe Soccer portal in September 2022, along with a gang of criminal accomplices.
The group targeted patrons in Mainland China, police think, but based their operations in Cambodia, reported the Chinese media outlet China.com.
Officers think Huang ran the platform as a kind of pyramid scheme, promising would-be patrons “guaranteed profits” if they “recruited” new members.
Many of the group’s medium-tier members were recruited in Mainland China, detectives said.
The group also reportedly targeted Cambodian and other Southeast Asian gamblers.
China: Repatriated Suspect Indicted
Police succeeded in closing down the Wanhe Soccer platform in 2023, but Huang allegedly fled Cambodia shortly after.
Thai police arrested Huang several months later. In February this year, a court issued an extradition order, with officers from the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau and the Ministry of Public Security heading to Thailand to repatriate Huang.
The officers brought Huang back to Mainland China on April 29, where Tianjin prosecutors indicted him ahead of a court hearing.
The bureau released two images of Huang, handcuffed and wearing a face mask, as he heard police charges.
$17.6M Fraud Case: Gambling-Addicted Lawyer Jailed
Chinese courts are handing out increasingly strict punishments to citizens found guilty of gambling and fraud-related crimes.
In Anhui Province, the Chinese newspaper Jinan Daily reported, a court has sentenced a lawyer to life in prison after discovering he stole $17.6 million from his corporate clients.
The lawyer, surnamed Zhou, told multiple business owners and investors he could acquire bank non-performing asset packages at low prices through “special channels,” prosecutors told the Bengbu Intermediate People’s Court.
Zhou promised to help his clients “purchase or co-invest in these assets” and promised them “lucrative returns.”
He forged scores of official-looking documents and contracts to dupe his clients into thinking the asset purchases were real.
Many of these contracts featured stamps that closely resembled the official seals used by Chinese courts and other state organs. Detectives later established that all of these documents were fake.
In fact, the court heard Zhou had amassed enormous gambling debts and embezzled his clients’ money to pay these off.
Police throughout Mainland China and Hong Kong are also cracking down on video gaming arcades that allow patrons to wager real money during behind-closed-doors sessions.
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Police in China have repatriated a man suspected of orchestrating a $73 million illegal online sports betting platform. Detectives said the man, surnamed Huang, launched the Wanhe Soccer portal in September 2022, along with a gang of criminal accomplices. The group targeted patrons in Mainland China, police think, but based their operations in Cambodia, reported
The post $73M Cross-Border Gambling Ring ‘Mastermind’ Repatriated to China Ahead of Trial appeared first on CasinoBeats.