Seven indicted in Vietnam over HiAnime piracy ring that collected $12.85 million in ad revenue

The case centers on HiAnime, a streaming portal previously known as Zoro.to and Aniwatch that attracted more than 150 million monthly visits before shutting down without explanation in March. The indictment also names the Sflix/Myflixerz and 9animetv site groups as part of the same network. The seven will be tried by the Hanoi People's Court.

Four suspects face charges of infringement of copyright and related rights, and money laundering. They are Nguyen Dinh Minh Khoa, 38, Deputy General Director of Pixes Perfect Co Ltd; Nguyen Trung Anh, 33, a programmer; Nguyen Hoang Thanh, 37, from Dai Mo Ward, Hanoi; and Nguyen Dinh Xuan, 33, former Chief Accountant of Pixes Perfect.

Three others have been indicted for copyright infringement only: Doan Thanh Luan, 34, an employee of Pixes Perfect; Nguyen Khuong Duy, 34, a freelancer; and Nguyen Phuoc Toan, 36, from Hoa Son Commune, Dak Lak.

According to the indictment, Khoa observed in 2019 that many unlicensed streaming websites had inconvenient interfaces and conceived the idea of building easier-to-use pirate sites to profit from advertising. He approached Trung Anh, and the pair recruited Thanh and Xuan.

Khoa played the initiating role, personally buying more than 100 domain names through the Namecheap platform at 20 to 50 USDT (USD Tether, a cryptocurrency equivalent to the US dollar) per domain per year and carrying out search-engine optimization to drive traffic. 

Trung Anh organized and managed the technical infrastructure, leasing servers and programming the website systems, while Xuan built the content-management system and Thanh handled design and payouts. 

Toan was assigned to administer the Zoro, Aniwatch and HiAnime pages on Reddit; Luan led the film-copying team and produced subtitles; and Duy copied films from the internet and provided a Visa card and e-wallet to cover costs and receive advertising money.

Staff searched for, copied and downloaded films before uploading them to leased servers. Trung Anh rented servers from the hosting company Evoluso between 2019 and 2022, with the group's storage relying on Cloudflare services from 2023 until March 2026. 

The operation cost about 70,000 USDT per month in server fees, equivalent to VND1.68 billion ($67,200), plus around VND1.3 billion ($52,000) a month in office costs and salaries.

From 2019 to 2026, the group illegally copied 26,000 television series and 7,500 animated films. Khoa dealt directly with the advertising platform PropellerAds via Skype and Telegram, obtaining advertising codes that triggered pop-up windows when users watched films. 

Payments depended on traffic volume, and the group received a total of 12.85 million USDT. Khoa personally received 2.5 million USDT from 2020 onwards, while Thanh collected 10.35 million USDT through Binance wallets from September 2023.

Investigators determined that Khoa, Trung Anh and Xuan each unlawfully profited by VND50 billion ($2 million); Thanh by more than VND51.3 billion ($2.05 million); Luan by more than VND3.74 billion ($149,600); Duy by VND1.77 billion ($70,800); and Toan by more than VND418 million ($16,720).

The sites repeatedly received DMCA copyright warnings from Google, but the suspects continually changed addresses to maintain streaming and advertising income. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment and the Motion Picture Association, representing eight United States film studios, confirmed none had licensed the sites to copy or distribute protected works.

The money laundering charges concern how the proceeds were spent. The four main suspects allegedly moved the USDT through several wallets, sold it for dong and transferred the funds to personal bank accounts before buying property and vehicles. 

Khoa spent more than VND24.45 billion ($978,000) on two plots of land and a succession of cars, including a Porsche Panamera registered in his wife's name, a Mercedes G63 and a Land Rover Autobiography bought earlier this year. 

Xuan spent VND10.69 billion ($427,600) on a Mercedes GLS 450, a Mercedes C300 and an apartment in Ha Dong, Hanoi. Thanh spent VND7.65 billion ($306,000) on a house and vehicles.

From February this year, fearing detection, the suspects began covering their tracks. Trung Anh registered his Porsche in his sister's name, while Xuan transferred a Mercedes to his father and then his sister and changed its license plate. By March, as authorities intensified the crackdown on copyright infringement, the group agreed to cease operations and delete the websites.

The case originated with a complaint filed with the Ministry of Public Security on May 7 by Rouse, the law firm representing the Motion Picture Association in Vietnam. That was the same day a nationwide crackdown on pirate sites began following an urgent order from the Prime Minister. Four suspects were arrested in July.

The prosecution is being closely watched abroad. The United States Trade Representative opened a Section 301 investigation into Vietnam's copyright enforcement in May, with tariffs among the possible outcomes, and Vietnam cited the HiAnime case in its response. 

The USTR has urged Vietnam to impose deterrent-level prison sentences, after two operators of the Fmovies piracy ring received suspended sentences last year.

No trial date has been announced. Several individuals identified by investigators as salaried employees acting under instruction were not subject to criminal prosecution.