Friday, March 16, 2007

Reporting the theft of a large sum of money to the police, yet being unable
to explain the source of the money in the first place led to a major online
gambling bust in China, reports the Shanghai Daily this week. A Chinese
court has sentenced six members of an online gambling operation in Shanghai
to heavy punishments this week in what is reported to be the city's largest
online gambling case, with wagers surpassing five billion yuan (US$646
million), and it all started with a report of theft to the police. Gang
leader Ren Bin was handed seven years in prison and a fine of six million
yuan for illegal gambling by the People's Court in Luwan District today.
Five other gang members, Liu Ping, Liu Guoliang, Liu Baolin, Guo Qin and Ni
Liqiang were sentenced to between 12 months to 54 months of imprisonment and
fines. The police had been following the group since May last year but
didn't have sufficient evidence linking them to illegal gambling until they
received a theft report from one of the accused, Liu Baolin at the end of
that month. Boalin reported to the police that someone had broken into his
apartment, which he shared with Ren, and had stolen at least one million
yuan in cash. However, neither Ren nor Boalin could explain the source of
the missing cash and a further five million yuan they had in a safe on the
premises, which triggered further police investigations, revealing that gang
members were collecting funds from online gambling.
Ren had earlier opened an overseas online gambling company and developed
subordinate agencies and accounts for gamblers. Police found 5.25 billion
yuan in wager cash in Ren's account alone. The criminals confessed to
conducting an online gambling operation soon after they were arrested. Ren
told the court that anyone who wants to get rich with gambling will
ultimately lose. "They win less than they pay, and will pay more when they
lose," Ren said.