With more than 150 million monthly visits at its peak, HiAnime stood as one of the most prolific and popular anime streaming portals to ever operate on the internet. Known previously by various iterations including Zoro.to and Aniwatch, the massive streaming giant abruptly went offline in March without offering an explanation to its millions of users. Four months after that mysterious disappearance, Vietnamese law enforcement authorities moved swiftly to arrest four of its alleged operators, ultimately charging a total of seven individuals in connection with the sprawling digital piracy ring.
While initial announcements from law enforcement omitted the specific name of the platform, local reporting and footage broadcast by state broadcaster VTV helped identify the operation. Now, Vietnam’s Supreme People’s Procuracy has formally named HiAnime directly in an extensive indictment that also sheds light on the massive financial scale of the enterprise and the origins of its multi-million dollar revenue streams.
Seven Defendants Head to Trial
The Supreme People’s Procuracy formally indicted Nguyễn Đình Minh Khoa and six co-defendants, who are now scheduled to face trial before the Hanoi People’s Court. Khoa, alongside Nguyễn Trung Anh, Nguyễn Hoàng Thanh, and Nguyễn Đình Xuân, faces severe charges encompassing both copyright infringement and money laundering. The remaining three co-defendants have been charged exclusively with copyright infringement.
According to reports from the state news agency TTXVN, the criminal case originated from a formal complaint filed with the Ministry of Public Security by Rouse, a prominent intellectual property law firm representing the Motion Picture Association in Vietnam. This crucial complaint was submitted on May 7, coinciding with the launch of a nationwide crackdown on illicit streaming websites triggered by an urgent directive from Vietnam’s Prime Minister.
Investigators tracing the history of the HiAnime operation discovered that the enterprise dates back to early 2019, when Khoa allegedly conceived the blueprint to build pirate streaming platforms that offered a smoother, more user-friendly interface than existing competitors. Khoa reportedly purchased over 100 domain names and dedicated his efforts to search engine optimization to drive traffic. Meanwhile, Trung Anh managed the complex server infrastructure, Xuân programmed the sites, and Thanh oversaw web design alongside managing payouts. To further scale the operation, co-defendant Nguyễn Phước Toàn was allegedly brought on board to manage the official Zoro, Aniwatch, and HiAnime communities on Reddit.
HiAnime was far from a solitary brand. The official indictment notes that the network also encompassed alternative platforms such as Sflix, Myflixerz, and 9animetv. Between the middle of 2019 and March 2026, the group allegedly made an astonishing 26,000 television series and 7,500 anime titles available to viewers worldwide through its interconnected web of pirate domains.
12.85 Million USDT Through PropellerAds
Prosecutors state that Khoa maintained primary control over the network’s monetization and advertising strategies. He allegedly communicated with the online advertising platform PropellerAds via Skype and Telegram, successfully integrating the network’s ad scripts across the various pirate properties.
According to legal reports from Báo Bảo vệ pháp luật, through the PropellerAds platform, the defendants received a cumulative total of 12.85 million USDT, which translates directly to approximately $12.85 million USD. TTXVN further corroborated that these payouts were disbursed directly into cryptocurrency wallets controlled by the syndicate.
The indictment outlines specific allocations of these funds, noting that Khoa personally received 2.5 million USDT starting in 2020, while Thanh collected 10.35 million USDT through accounts on the Binance exchange beginning in September 2023. Following operating costs and expenses, the four primary defendants allegedly split the remaining profits equally, netting each individual a minimum of 50 billion Vietnamese dong, which equates to roughly $2 million USD.
PropellerAds has previously faced scrutiny and criticism from Hollywood and industry bodies. The Motion Picture Association previously recommended that the advertising network be added to the United States Trade Representative’s annual notorious markets list, asserting that numerous rogue streaming operations rely on its services to generate illicit revenue. PropellerAds has consistently rejected these accusations, going so far as to label the MPA’s claims as harassment and defamation in late 2023. Whether PropellerAds personnel had actual knowledge of HiAnime’s illegal streaming activities remains publicly unknown.
Cloudflare Storage and Legal Subpoenas
The detailed indictment also highlights the various third-party technological intermediaries utilized by the syndicate to maintain uptime and evade detection. Trung Anh allegedly rented dedicated servers from hosting provider Evoluso between 2019 and 2022. From 2023 onward until the shutdown in March 2026, the group shifted its massive data storage requirements to services provided by Cloudflare.
The Motion Picture Association previously attempted to unmask the individuals operating HiAnime by leveraging Cloudflare through legal channels. In October 2024, the MPA requested a DMCA subpoena compelling Cloudflare to disclose identifying information regarding hianime.to and a cluster of related domains. A year later, the organization filed for another subpoena targeting a subsequent batch of branded HiAnime domains. It remains unclear whether data produced through these civil subpoenas contributed meaningfully to the breakthrough in the Vietnamese criminal investigation.
From Porsche to G63
Throughout the years of operation, the streaming portals repeatedly received DMCA copyright takedown notices and warnings from Google, according to prosecutors. Rather than complying, the defendants continuously pivoted, acquiring new domain names and executing rebranding efforts to ensure uninterrupted streaming capabilities and continuous advertising revenue streams.
As the legal net began to tighten earlier this year, the defendants allegedly made concerted efforts to obscure their assets and cover their tracks. In February, fearing imminent law enforcement detection, Trung Anh had his sister officially register his Porsche in her name. Xuân similarly registered a Mercedes under the name of his father and later his sister, while simultaneously altering the vehicle’s license plate. By March 2026, as authorities intensified nationwide enforcement actions targeting digital piracy, the operators chose to pull the plug, deleting their infrastructure and taking the websites offline.
The money laundering charges brought against the defendants stem directly from how the generated advertising revenue was converted and spent. The four main defendants allegedly funneled the USDT through a web of intermediary crypto wallets before liquidating the digital assets into Vietnamese dong and transferring the funds into personal bank accounts. These capital inflows were subsequently utilized to acquire luxury real estate and high-end vehicles.
According to the indictment, Khoa spent more than 24 billion dong on luxury assets, beginning with a Porsche Panamera registered in his wife’s name in January 2022. He later liquidated that vehicle, using the proceeds alongside additional crypto funds to purchase a Mercedes G63 in April 2024. That vehicle was subsequently sold for 8.5 billion dong, contributing toward the purchase of a Land Rover Autobiography earlier this year.
Co-defendant Nguyễn Hoàng Thanh similarly funneled his proceeds into real estate and vehicles, acquiring a house in Hanoi alongside buying and selling a Ford Mustang, a BMW Z4, an Audi A7, a Dodge Challenger, and a Kia Carnival totaling 7.65 billion dong, while accumulating a total profit exceeding 51.3 billion dong. Nguyễn Đình Xuân acquired a Mercedes GLS 450, a Mercedes C300, and an apartment in Hanoi valued at 10.69 billion dong. Finally, Nguyễn Trung Anh purchased a Porsche valued at 6.85 billion dong.
This high-profile prosecution is also drawing intense international attention, particularly in Washington. In May, the United States Trade Representative launched a Section 301 investigation into Vietnam’s overall intellectual property enforcement record, a move that could potentially result in trade tariffs. In its formal defense, the Vietnamese government cited the aggressive HiAnime prosecution as tangible proof that local authorities take copyright enforcement seriously.
The defendants are not the first prominent pirate site operators to face legal proceedings in Vietnam. Last year, two key operators associated with the Fmovies piracy network avoided immediate prison time after receiving suspended sentences. That judicial outcome drew criticism from rightsholders and was explicitly flagged by the USTR, which has urged foreign trading partners to impose robust, deterrent-level prison sentences for major commercial copyright crimes.
As the case prepares to move to the Hanoi People’s Court, official scheduling details remain unannounced, leaving open the question of whether the judiciary will hand down the stringent sentences that Hollywood and U.S. trade officials have actively sought.
