Court summons 100,000 investors to FLC chairman’s trial for manipulating stock

Quyet is set to be tried on July 22 at the Hanoi People’s Court for manipulating the stocks of FLC Faros Construction (ROS) and four other companies and making illegal gains of VND723 billion (US$28 million) from it.

Forty nine others will also be tried for the same charges.

The investors who are summoned either bought ROS shares when it was first sold or are still holding it.

In April prosecutors indicted Quyet for manipulating the stock market and fraudulent appropriation of assets.

Seven others are charged with the same crimes, including Quyet’s sisters Trinh Thi Minh Hue and Trinh Thi Thuy Nga, and deputy chairwoman of property developer FLC, Huong Tran Kieu Dung.

Several government officials will also be in the dock, including chairman of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), Tran Dac Sinh, and its CEO, Le Hai Tra.

Nearly 100 lawyers will represent the defendants, with four representing Quyet.

Prosecutors said Quyet ordered his sister Hue to open 500 stock accounts under the name of 45 individuals and used these accounts to trade the stocks of FLC and its four subsidiaries back and forth.

In all this, Quyet is considered the mastermind and Hue his main accomplice.

With respect to the fraudulent appropriation of assets charge, prosecutors said Quyet directed FLC group CEO Doan Van Phuong and his other sister, Hue, an accountant in the company, to falsely represent FLC Faros’ capital as VND4.3 trillion instead of the actual VND1.5 billion to enable its listing on HoSE.

HoSE executives Sinh and Tra approved the listing despite not being to able to confirm if the company had VND4.3 trillion in capital.

Their actions deceived investors into buying ROS stocks, and 30,400 of them ended up buying 391 million shares of the company when it was listed.

This allowed Quyet to fraudulently gain VND3.62 trillion.