Vietnam charges seven in HiAnime-linked piracy case

Vietnamese police have charged seven suspects in a copyright-infringement and money-laundering case tied to a pirate streaming network that operated more than 100 websites, according to TorrentFreak. Vietnam Television broadcast footage linking HiAnime.to—until recently one of the internet’s biggest anime piracy portals—to the investigation. Four alleged ringleaders were arrested and charged with both copyright infringement and money laundering, while three others were charged with copyright infringement and placed under travel restrictions, the report said.

The case illustrates how online piracy enforcement increasingly runs through trade pressure and cross-border policing rather than courtroom victories by rightsholders. TorrentFreak notes that the US Trade Representative’s “Notorious Markets” reporting highlighted Vietnam shortly before HiAnime shut down, and that Vietnam was designated a “Priority Foreign Country” in the Special 301 process—an escalation that can open the door to trade sanctions. In that context, a domestic criminal case becomes a form of diplomatic housekeeping: a way to show cooperation while keeping control of the outcome at home.

Investigators allege the network ran from 2020 until April 2026, offering tens of thousands of unlicensed titles and generating revenue through advertising. The money trail described by TorrentFreak is familiar to anyone who watches grey-market internet businesses mature: payments routed in cryptocurrency from foreign advertising platforms, then laundered through intermediaries and moved into Vietnamese bank accounts, with proceeds spent on real estate and vehicles.

The international collaboration is also explicit. TorrentFreak reports that Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security worked with US Homeland Security Investigations and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, an anti-piracy coalition backed by the Motion Picture Association. That partnership gives Washington a lever—intelligence and enforcement capacity—while giving Hanoi a way to present the arrests as anti-corruption and economic-crime work rather than as a concession to Hollywood.

HiAnime went dark in March without explanation, and now appears in state TV footage as part of a dismantled network. The sites were free; the enforcement effort was not.