Businessman Dao Minh Phu: Arrested with Shark Binh, Poker King, won 40 billion prize

The name Dao Minh Phu has become the focus of attention of the media and online community in recent days when he was arrested along with NextTech Chairman - Nguyen Hoa Binh (commonly known by the nickname Shark Binh) in a case related to capital mobilization and digital currency issuance activities.

This event not only caused a stir in the technology startup world but also made the public curious about Dao Minh Phu - a famous businessman and poker player who won a prize of more than 1.6 million USD.

A particularly serious case involving Shark Binh

Recently, the Hanoi City Police Department prosecuted Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh (Shark Binh) and 9 defendants including: Dao Minh Phu (former CEO of NextTech), Nguyen Huu Tuat, Mai Thai Ha, Tran Trung Hieu, Le Van Luong, Doan Van Tuan, Nguyen Ha Thuy, Tran Thi Thuy Van, Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property and Violation of accounting regulations causing serious consequences.

According to the police, in February 2021, Mr. Binh and a number of subjects agreed to contribute money to build and develop the Antex digital currency project and call for investors to sell this digital currency and raise capital to build the VNDT digital currency in the future. The subjects contributed a total of 5 billion VND to invest in the project, Mr. Binh contributed 2 billion VND.

Mr. Binh directed the establishment of the legal entity Vietnam Blockchain Services Joint Stock Company. The initial amount was transferred to the company to maintain operations. During the project development process, the subjects met to discuss and announce the digital currency development policy, planning to sell 100 billion Antex (abbreviated as 100 billion Tokens) to the market. From August 2021 to November 2021, the subjects issued 33.2 billion tokens to about 30,000 investors, collecting 4.5 million USDT (equivalent to 4.5 million USD, equivalent to about 117 billion VND).

From November 2021 to December 2021, Mr. Binh used his influence to post information on social networks about the launch of the Next100Blockchain investment fund and committed to investing in digital currency projects with a total capital of 50 million USD in 10 years to strengthen investor confidence and avoid dumping Antex coins to withdraw money from the project.

Although the project did not proceed as planned, Mr. Binh and NextTech shareholders withdrew money from the project's general wallet, transferred it to a number of individual wallets, and then converted it to VND to share. In addition, the subjects transferred money into the NextTech ecosystem for use other than the intended purpose. To date, the investigation agency has determined that Mr. Binh and the shareholders have withdrawn money from 30,000 investor wallets, appropriating an exceptionally large amount of money.

The investigation agency has frozen the accounts and temporarily detained the subjects' money, about 900 billion VND (including 597 gold bars, US dollars, red books, cars)... To date, the subjects have recovered 3,450 billion VND.

Businessman Dao Minh Phu - "Passionate" about Poker, won a prize of 1.67 million USD

Among the 9 defendants involved in the legal case with Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh (Shark Binh), the name Dao Minh Phu attracted the attention of many people. Mr. Dao Minh Phu, as CEO of NextTech, and a shareholder contributing 20% of the capital to this group during the period when the company increased its capital (in 2020) from 100 billion to 500 billion, is an important figure in the "project".

In addition, Mr. Dao Minh Phu is also a very famous person in the Vietnamese Poker community, a "big player", who won a prestigious tournament to pocket 1.67 million USD and expressed his ambition to popularize Poker in Vietnam.

He once shared: "I used to be passionate about intellectual sports such as chess, Chinese chess,... Once, by chance, I watched a Poker competition video on the internet, and I started to know and learn about Poker. After researching, I realized that this is an intellectual sport and extremely interesting when you have to use your reasoning ability, calculate the probability of your opponent's cards, psychological tactics,... to compete.

I realized that to play Poker, you need to practice. There are books on how to play Poker, but they are all just theory. You have to practice to be able to play well.

Poker is quite suitable for Vietnamese people. Our advantage is that we are very smart, eager to learn and willing to dig deep into research and study, this helps Vietnamese people easily get acquainted and learn to play Poker.

However, there is also a weakness in the fact that there is little practical experience and practice because Poker is not popular in Vietnam. In the tournaments I have participated in, players from India often win high prizes because they have a lot of practical practice. Therefore, they handle situations methodically and their tactics are more reasonable.

The view that "only people with a lot of money, even tycoons, can play this game" is only partially correct. It is true that Poker players are often businessmen, people with good economic conditions, but there are also levels for beginners who want to learn about Poker without spending too much money.

Starting to play Poker since 2019, Mr. Dao Minh Phu has participated in many tournaments at home and abroad, and the notable victory is the Triton Super High Roller Series $50,000 NLH 8-Handed 2023 held in Quang Nam, bringing home a prize of about 1.67 million USD, or nearly 40 billion VND. This tournament attracted many international experts such as Justin Bonomo, Dan Smith, Bryn Kenney, Stephen Chidwick, Fedor Holz, Sam Greenwood and Mr. Dao Minh Phu surpassed them to win the championship.

In a statement after the tournament, Mr. Dao Minh Phu shared: "I only learned poker 3 years ago, this is the first time I participate in a big tournament."

When invited for an interview by On Sports, Mr. Dao Minh Phu expressed his desire to popularize Poker in Vietnam. At that time, Mr. Phu emphasized that Poker is an intellectual sport, requiring reasoning, probability, and psychological tactics, not simply gambling. Mr. Dao Minh Phu revealed that he once competed for 5 consecutive days in the APT Summer Festival Hanoi - VSOP 2022.

Shark Binh was officially arrested, what will be Phuong Oanh's fate? Trần Mạn14:38:37 14/10/2025Hanoi City Police have officially arrested Shark Binh, also known by his real name Nguyen Hoa Binh, for fraud and property appropriation related to the virtual currency project in which he participated that has caused a stir recently.