Police brought back suspects involved in the "Big Giant" gambling gang. Picture provided by the police
In August 2019, the police in Zhangjiagang City, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province busted a transnational online gambling gang.
This is a criminal group with the "Huang Family" as its core. It relies on online gambling websites that pretend to be domestic welfare lottery. Over more than 3 years, it has achieved explosive rapid development and gradually expanded to 29 websites, making monthly profits. Reaching more than 10 million.
With the development of gambling websites, the "Huang Family" accumulated wealth, invested in real estate in the country, and purchased luxury homes and luxury cars, hoping that they would be able to escape the blow.
In August 2019, after a 15-month investigation, the police captured 335 domestic and foreign criminal suspects, and escorted 63 suspects back to Suzhou in three batches from Fujian, Cambodia, and the Philippines. More than 1,700 bank accounts were frozen and seized, 25 properties and 11 luxury vehicles were seized, worth more than 300 million yuan.
Beijing News reporter learned that Huang Tong (pseudonym), the main creator of the website, was only 27 years old. After the gambling website took shape, he successively brought three of his fathers, brothers, and classmates into the group to form the core staff, and the family members controlled the finances. funds. They strictly manage grassroots staff and collect passports uniformly. Mobile phones are not allowed into the work area. They live in staff dormitories together and are not allowed to stay out overnight. All staff must have fancy names and communicate with each other through QQ.
html Huang Tong, who made millions in January, has never participated in any form of gambling. He said, "I know that nine times out of ten you will lose. Once gambling becomes a problem, money is just a number. You have no way to control yourself, no matter how much money you have." There is a possibility of losing everything.”Today, the Ministry of Public Security held a press conference in Beijing to report on the national public security agencies’ crackdown on cross-border online gambling crimes in 2019 and 10 typical cases, including the case of the “Huang Family”.
Ministry of Public Security spokesperson Guo Lin said that cross-border online gambling crimes directly endanger people’s property security, national economic security and social security and stability. The Party Central Committee attaches great importance to this and has made a series of decisions and arrangements. On July 12, 2019, State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi presided over a special meeting to study and deploy the prevention, crackdown and rectification of cross-border online gambling crimes. Subsequently, the Ministry of Public Security deployed public security agencies across the country to carry out a three-year "chain-breaking" operation to eradicate the survival of cross-border online gambling crimes in our territory, promote and improve regulatory measures, and form a normal and long-term mechanism for prevention and control.
"Kuai 3" online gambling exceeds 500,000 gamblers
"Kuai 3, selected to win big prizes...10 years of brand trustworthy", around 2018, a self-proclaimed "China's No. 1 Kuai 3 portal" "The online gambling website came into the view of the Zhangjiagang police in Suzhou.
"Quick 3" is an online instant lottery. It is usually divided into betting methods such as "sum value" and "three identical numbers" based on the combination of three numbers. The sales time of each issue is 10 minutes, but the regular lottery only Sales at the sales outlets set up by welfare lottery organizations are allowed, and any online sales are illegal.
This gambling website pretends to be a regular lottery and plays the game privately. It uses "Quick 3" as the main gameplay, and also sets up more betting methods, such as guessing "odd and even" and "big and small", and sets a variety of payouts according to different gameplays. At the same time, we have also created our own self-operated gameplay such as "Lucky Quick 3", the fastest one can reach two minutes.
As long as you register as a member and recharge, gamblers can place bets from 8 am to 9 pm. In the two login methods of computer web version or mobile APP, transfers and cash withdrawals are carried out through WeChat code scanning, Alipay transfer, bank card remittance, etc. Gamblers have level settings. Different levels have different bet amounts. There are three levels. The single bet amount is from 5 yuan to 10,000 yuan, 100 yuan to 30,000 yuan, and 300 yuan to 50,000 yuan.
After careful and meticulous investigation work, the police initially found out that this website was a gambling website set up overseas by a criminal gang, and a mobile APP gambling client was established based on overseas servers. The convenience and high odds of real-time betting on the
network continue to attract new gamblers to join.By the time the police closed down the website, the website had more than 500,000 registered members, and the betting volume exceeded 10 billion yuan. After investigation by
, this gambling website has grown from one website to 29 websites since its establishment in 2014, including four main websites and 25 sub-websites. Although the website names and domain names are different, and the domain names are constantly changing, they all focus on "Quick 3" and are unified under the name "Big Giant" company with hundreds of staff. Zheng, the technical director of the
website and a criminal suspect, said that the website technicians set up an algorithm, and the supervisors can set the profit ratio of the website within the range of 1 to 100 to ensure that no matter whether the gambler wins or loses, the profit ratio of the total bet is always The company is profitable. They can not only modify the overall profit ratio of the website, but also modify the lottery results for individual self-operated lottery products.
In June 2018, the Suzhou Zhangjiagang Municipal Bureau launched an investigation into the case. In December 2018, the Ministry of Public Security supervised the case. The task force started with the upper-level personnel of the gambling website and eliminated all those involved in the entire chain in one fell swoop. The "Huang Family" behind the
website
html Behind the 129 gambling websites, as long as they are the core positions of website operation, they are all relatives of the Huang family or Huang Tong's classmates. The main leader of the gang is remotely commanded in the country, and the gang members are dispatched overseas to take charge of management. .In 2014, Huang Tong, who was in his 20s, began to take risks after learning that gambling websites could make money. He borrowed 100,000 yuan from friends and family, hired several employees, including a technician for technical maintenance, and started to build a gambling website.
In July 2016, they had grown to four gambling websites, and their staff had expanded to more than 20 people. Some people kept choosing to leave because of the illegality of the gambling websites, and those who finally stayed became the core members of the gang.
With the severe domestic crackdown, Huang Tong moved his criminal base to Cambodia in early 2017 and named it "Big Giant Company". It gradually developed into a criminal group with 4 main websites and 25 sub-websites, and the gang members also developed to more than 500 people. He asked his classmates to act as agents while he controlled the capital flow of criminal groups in China. The
main website and sub-websites are more like a franchise relationship. The daily income of the subsidiaries will be transferred to the head office, and 30% to 50% of the profits will be taken away by the head office. Each subsidiary is operated independently and each has its own Technical and promotional customer service personnel. In 2018, Huang Tong partially moved to the Philippines.
Huang Tong said that after the company moved to Cambodia, he no longer participated in the specific operations and only read the company's reports every month. His uncle Huang Mounan was responsible for coordinating the operations of the entire group, and his second uncle Huang Moulian was responsible for cash withdrawals from domestic underground banks. Father Huang Moucheng, as the general manager, is responsible for accounting and investment and financial management. Anyone involved in the company's capital must be a member of the Huang family.
Huang Tong recalled that their first method of attracting gamblers was to post small advertisements in the QQ group to attract gamblers with a "high winning rate". Within about half a month, there were more than 20 gamblers. Half a year later , when the website has a fixed number of 180 gamblers, it will start to make profits.
In his opinion, as long as gamblers continue to join, the website can be profitable. "I was worried at the beginning, but as long as there are many people, there is a high probability that we will make money."
By 2019, Big Giant's monthly profit will be more than 10 million yuan, and Huang Tong, as the company's CEO The major shareholder shares 60% to 70% of the profit every month, and his account deposit is as high as 100 million yuan. Even so, Huang Tong has never participated in any form of gambling. He usually plays small cards with his friends and makes a fortune through gambling. He is well aware of the dangers of gambling. "I know that nine times out of ten you will lose when you gamble. Once you get angry with gambling, money is just a number. You have no way to control yourself. No matter how much you gamble, you may bankrupt your family."
Strict personnel management within the criminal group
Under the Huang family , employing more than 500 staff, of which promotion and customer service staff are the largest.
Yan Ming (pseudonym) is the general manager of Cambodia, and Huang Mounan, the father of the Huang family, is her brother-in-law. Yan Mingben is an administrative specialist in a domestic company who specializes in reimbursement, with a monthly salary of 7,000 yuan. In 2017, he went to Cambodia to work as the cashier and general manager of the group, and his monthly salary doubled to 15,000 yuan.
In Giant Company, there is a strict personnel management model. The company's slogan is in a prominent position, which reads, "Tomorrow you will thank yourself today." As for personnel management, Yan Ming is basically responsible for it. These employees were recruited from within the country or introduced by family members and relatives. But no matter what the position is, every employee needs to choose a nickname from the beginning of joining the job. You can choose it as you like, but there can be no duplication. Yan Ming's nickname is "Green Apple", while Huang Tong's nickname is "Huang Da". few". Employees recruited domestically by
will be picked up and dropped off by the company's unified car from the moment they get off the plane. Their passports will be taken away as soon as they get off the plane and they will be managed uniformly. Employees live in dormitories rented by the company and are not allowed to stay out overnight. The company operates three shifts. Employees come to and from get off work at the same time and are required to wear work badges and swipe their cards to enter and exit. When employees are at work, their mobile phones will be handed into their mobile phone pockets and cannot be brought into the work area. They can only communicate with each other through dedicated QQ. Employees who leave less than half a year after joining the company need to pay for air tickets and visas themselves, which is basically around 2,000 to 3,000 yuan.
The police said that whether it is confiscating passports, contacting people under false names, or strictly managing them, all the measures taken by gambling websites are just to better avoid attacks. The largest number of
staff are website promotion and customer service staff. The customer service is responsible for the recharge and cash withdrawal of registered members. Promotion personnel are further subdivided into "attracting fans", "gold attracting fans" and "investment teachers". They are responsible for recruiting a large number of people to publish advertisements in QQ groups and WeChat groups to attract gamblers. "Gold powder" will pick out gamblers with gold content among them for maintenance. The investment teacher is responsible for "setting the rhythm" in the group, publishing forecast information, and leading gamblers to follow the betting. There are a large number of agents under the
gambling website. Police statistics show that by 2019, the number of agents in the country has exceeded 10,000. These agents are all developed from gamblers. They make profits by developing downline gamblers.
Gamblers can apply to become an agent as long as they contact customer service. The agent will get the QR code of the website for promotion. As long as a gambler registers as a member by scanning the QR code and deposits money, he will be the agent's next home. Agents draw fees based on the total turnover of gamblers.
A Gambler Who Lost 600,000 in Two Years
27-year-old Wang Ming (pseudonym) scanned website advertisements posted by agents in the WeChat group and became a gambler. In the two years from 2014 to 2016, he lost more than 600,000, and all of this money was borrowed through credit loans and credit cards. To this day, although his family helped pay back the money, his debts are still Not fully paid off.
Wang Ming did win some money in the first week. So whenever he had free time at work, he would take out his mobile phone and click on the website. He could gamble on the website for several hours a day.
Starting from losing 10,000 yuan, Wang Ming's mentality began to change, and he became addicted to it, thinking only of betting to make money. "I lost 10,000 yuan at the beginning. I thought I would win 1,000 yuan every day in 10 days. If I could make up my money, I would stop playing." Wang Ming said, but after winning for several days in a row, he lost all his winnings at once. Keep adding money to join.
Wang Ming mentioned that in the gambling WeChat group, there are teachers who will analyze the early trend charts and buy big or small. When the trend appears "long queue", it is easy to lose money. Win or lose like this, Wang Ming was never able to recover his money. When he was unable to repay the loan and the bank called home for payment, he was discovered by his family. After promising not to gamble again, his family came forward to help him repay part of the loan.
Recalling that period of gambling, Wang Ming only regretted that he had just graduated and could not make money but burdened his family with debt, and he did not choose to call the police. After that, he did not dare to participate in gambling again. "When I couldn't repay the loan, I was really stressed and broke down."
Police brought back suspects involved in the "Big Giant" gambling gang. Picture provided by the police
Concentrated network raids in many places, 335 people arrested
As the website continued to expand, the Huang family’s property increased dramatically, and they began to purchase real estate and luxury cars in the country. But the so-called wealth is just a flash in the pan, and what awaits them will eventually be legal sanctions.
Huang Tong mentioned that after he made a large amount of money, he also thought that the risk of breaking the law was too great and he should stop in time. But as the company expanded and involved too many people, he was unable to turn back. He always took a chance and thought he would not be caught.
After 15 months of rigorous investigation, with the strong support of the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia and the Philippines, the task force initially identified the criminal gang’s den and organizational structure. On the basis of grasping the relevant criminal facts and evidence, in August last year, in accordance with the unified deployment and command of the Ministry of Public Security, the task force, together with the law enforcement agencies of Cambodia and the Philippines, carried out centralized network closing operations at home and abroad. Among them, on August 21, 2019, 26 major suspects including Huang Cheng, Zheng, etc. were captured in Fujian, and Cambodian law enforcement authorities captured 295 suspects such as front-line managers and "keyboard players"; 8 On March 31, Philippine law enforcement authorities arrested 14 suspects including fund management and back-end operators.
So far, a total of 335 suspects have been arrested in this case, more than 8 million yuan in RMB cash has been seized, more than 60 million yuan in account funds involved in the case have been seized, 25 properties have been seized, and 11 luxury vehicles have been seized.
How did such a large amount of funds flow through layers and eventually fall into the hands of the Huang family?
police mentioned that the gambling group purchased other people's accounts for gambling settlement, and frequently changed them. The subsidiary platform collected bank cards, and after collection, the first physical isolation was carried out through third-party payment. In the next step of fund flow, except for part of the funds used for daily operations of the website, most of the funds quickly enter other funding processes. After investigation, more than 20,000 bank cards were involved, and more than 1,700 bank cards have been frozen.
On the day of the arrest, the police found 5 million in cash in the trunk of Huang Tong's father, Huang Moucheng's luxury car.
The case is still under further investigation.
reporter Zuo Yanyan editor Zhao Kaidi
proofreader Fan Jinchun
