Apax Leaders English school boss Nguyen Ngoc Thuy accused of defrauding over 10,000 investors of $291M

By Pham Du November 17, 2025 | 08:47 pm PT

Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, who runs English language school Apax Leaders, allegedly swindled 10,123 investors out of VND7.68 trillion (US$291 million) by selling them non-existent shares in his company Egroup.

The Ministry of Public Security on Monday said it has completed an investigation into the activities of Egroup’s chairman and recommended charges of bribery and fraudulent appropriation of assets against him and 29 of his associated.

Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, Egroup chairman. Photo courtesy of the company

The police said Thuy and his accomplices falsely claimed Egroup had a charter capital of VND963 billion ($36 million) in order to sell the shares.

They relied on Apax English school reputation to convince the victims since it had 120 centers around the country at some point. They took even real estate as payment for the shares.

The 10,123 investors were told that the company would buy back the shares after a year at higher prices.

But the police found that 8,926 of them never got their money back.