Vietnam Sends Seven HiAnime Operators to Trial Over $12.85 Million in Pirate Ad Revenue

Last Updated on November 3, 2026 by Steve Salinas

Vietnam's Supreme People's Procuracy has indicted seven people behind HiAnime, the anime streaming site that pulled in more than 150 million monthly visits before it went dark in March. Prosecutors say the network earned $12.85 million in advertising revenue, and four of the defendants also face money-laundering charges.

Table of Contents

What Happened

The indictment names Nguyễn Đình Minh Khoa and six co-defendants, who will be tried by the Hanoi People's Court. Khoa, Nguyễn Trung Anh, Nguyễn Hoàng Thanh and Nguyễn Đình Xuân are charged with copyright infringement and money laundering, while the remaining three face copyright charges only. The case began with a complaint from Rouse, the law firm representing the Motion Picture Association in Vietnam, filed on May 7 – the first day of a nationwide crackdown ordered by the prime minister.

Investigators trace the operation back to early 2019, when Khoa allegedly set out to build pirate streaming sites that were easier to use than the ones already online. He reportedly bought more than 100 domain names and worked on search engine optimization. Trung Anh managed the servers, Xuân programmed the sites, and Thanh designed them and handled payouts. The group ran HiAnime alongside Sflix/Myflixerz and 9animetv and, between mid-2019 and March 2026, offered 26,000 TV series and 7,500 anime titles. HiAnime itself had previously operated as Zoro.to and Aniwatch.

Prosecutors say the defendants changed domains and rebranded whenever DMCA complaints arrived, which let them keep streaming and collecting ad money. The indictment says the advertising came through PropellerAds, negotiated over Skype and Telegram. In February the operators allegedly began moving assets into relatives' names, including a Porsche and a Mercedes, before shutting the sites down in March and deleting them.

Key Facts

150 million+ – monthly visits HiAnime attracted at its peak.
$12.85 million – USDT paid to the group by ad platform PropellerAds, according to the indictment.
7 – defendants indicted; four of them also face money-laundering charges.
26,000 TV series and 7,500 anime titles – catalogue offered between mid-2019 and March 2026.
2.5 million USDT – received personally by Khoa from 2020; Thanh allegedly collected 10.35 million USDT through Binance wallets from September 2023.
50 billion dong (about $2 million) – profit each of the four main defendants allegedly took after costs.
100+ – domain names Khoa reportedly bought for the network.

What It Means

HiAnime's shutdown did not remove the demand for anime streaming. The same playbook – a new domain, the same catalogue, fresh ads – is what makes these sites hard to keep down, and it is why one arrest or one blocklist rarely clears the market. For viewers, the practical risk sits in the pages that follow a mirror: malformed players, fake update prompts and crypto checkout screens. A VPN changes the IP address a site sees, but it does not verify what the site serves, and it does not make unlicensed streaming legal. The safer route is a licensed anime platform; if you are travelling and a catalogue is geo-blocked, check the service's terms before reaching for a workaround.

Related Guide

If you are sorting out legal anime access from a country where your usual catalogue is locked, our guide to the best VPNs for Crunchyroll covers which providers keep up with streaming and what to check before you subscribe.

Source: TorrentFreak – “Vietnam Indicts HiAnime Operators Over $12.85 Million in Pirate Ad Revenue”, 30 October, citing Báo Bảo vệ pháp luật and TTXVN.

This is a news report, not legal advice. VPNs are legal in most countries, but using one to access pirated content is not, and unblocking a service can breach its Terms of Service. Check your local laws and the terms of the services you use.