YNOT – Vietnamese police arrested three officers of a Hanoi company that ran pornographic websites hosted on U.S. servers. In addition to porn, police accused Tran Ngo Quy and Pham Ba Nhan, both 25, and Dang Bui Phi Hung, 33, of distributing “reactionary” videos produced by foreign “terrorist groups.”Police Major General Bui Van Co, who serves as director of Vietnam’s Security Department for Information and Communication, told Indo-Asian News Service all three suspects admitted the crime of “disseminating debauched cultural products.” Each man faces 10 years in prison if convicted.
Nhan, a computer programmer, launched Phimvang.com in February 2009 as a free mainstream video-streaming site, Co told IANS. When the site failed to attract an audience, Nhan partnered with Hung and added pornography to the site. The change in focus increased the website’s viewership and advertising revenues right away. Quy joined the company as a director later in the year and helped the others launch two more adult websites.
Together, the sites earned more than 20 million dong (about $10,500) before they were shut down this week.
Police records indicate the sites also hosted materials critical of Vietnam’s communist government.
