Vietnam PM orders inquiry into illegal betting
HANOI - Vietnam Prime Minister Phan Van Khai has ordered a swift police inquiry into whether state funds have been used in a multimillion-dollar football betting scandal, an official said.
Police last month arrested Bui Tien Dung, director general at the Ministry of Transport, over allegations he spent millions of dollars of funds on illegal betting.
A government circular demanded Tuesday that investigators swiftly track down the source of the money and those involved, the cabinet official said Wednesday.
"In particular, the prime minister ordered them to quickly find the source of major amounts of funds used in football betting rings uncovered recently," the official said.
According to state media, Dung was accused of spending several million dollars in bets on English Premier League and Spanish Liga matches, including roughly 1.8 million dollars in December alone.
Other officials are suspected of involvement in the same betting network with some 22 police officers detained in December. Investigators suspect one of those officers is the ringleader.
Much of the transport ministry's budget for infrastructure projects comes from overseas donors and lenders, mainly Japan. The Japanese embassy in Hanoi declined to comment citing the "sensitive" nature of the issue.
However, a major Japanese lender supported Khai's demand for a swift investigation.
"We request the feedback about the progress of the investigation," said Masayuki Karasawa, chief representative of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation in Hanoi.
"The ministry of transport as a whole has quite a large share of our portfolio," he told AFP.
According to Thanh Nien newspaper, a traffic police official arrested in Hanoi told investigators that vast sums of money were spent on football betting in Hong Kong and Macau through an unnamed big boss of gambling in the communist nation.
In Tuesday's circular, Khai also reiterated that he wanted all of the facts uncovered about a huge match-fixing scandal surrounding Vietnam's participation in the recent Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines last year. The same gambling network is said to be behind this scam.
Football gambling is illegal but widespread in Vietnam.
Most major syndicates bet on foreign matches, but the domestic V-League has also been marred by allegations of corruption and match-fixing since its debut 2000-2001 season.
Several coaches, football officials and players are under arrest for their alleged hand in match fixing, either during national competitions or at the last Southeast Asian Games.
Agence France Presse - February 8, 2006.
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