FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet charged with $29M stock manipulation scheme

The Supreme People’s Procuracy charged Quyet and seven others with the same two charges on Monday, more than two years after Quyet was arrested.

Among them include Quyet’s two sisters: Trinh Thi Minh Hue, an accountant of FLC, and Trinh Thi Thuy Nga, deputy CEO of BOS Securities.

Huong Tran Kieu Dung, standing deputy chairwoman of FLC Group, was also charged with the same violations.

Prosecutors charged four leaders of the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) for abusing position and authority while performing official duties.

They include chairman Tran Dac Sinh, deputy general director Le Hai Tra, deputy general director Tram Tuan Vu, and director of listing management and evaluation Le Thi Tuyet Hang.

Prosecutors charged three stock officials with publishing false information or covering information in stock activities.

One of them is Le Cong Dien, head of the supervision department of public companies under the State Securities Commission of Vietnam.

The two others are from the Vietnam Securities Depository: Duong Van Thanh, general director, and Pham Trung Minh, a department head.

Thirteen other people, including many relatives of Quyet, are charged with stock manipulation, and 22 with fraudulent appropriation of assets.

In total 49 people were charged.

Prosecutors said that Quyet established FLC in 2009 and developed it into a large ecosystem with 15 subsidiaries and two partner companies. Among them five companies were listed.

Quyet ordered his subordinates Doan Van Phuong, FLC Group CEO and chairman of Faros construction company, and Hue to fake the charter capital increase of Faros from VND1.5 billion to VND4.3 trillion.

They then requested stock authorities to list 430 million shares of Faros on the stock market. They provided fabricated information to authorities to seek their approval.

Leaders of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam, the Vietnam Securities Depository and Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange used these informations to approve the listing.

Sinh, Tra, Vu and Hang are accused of speeding up the listing approval because Sinh knew Quyet personally even though they did not have enough evidence to determine the real charter capital of Faros.

Because of their approval, investors thought ROS shares had real value and bought them.

Over 30,000 investors bought 390 million shares from Quyet, who appropriated VND3.62 trillion from them.

Quyet also allegedly told Hue to open 500 stock accounts to manipulate the listed shares of FLC-related companies. Quyet alone had 23 accounts.

They manipulated five tickers: AMD of FLC Stone Mining and Investment, HAI of HAI Agrochem, GAB of FLC Mining Investment & Asset Management, FLC of property developer FLC and ART of BOS Securities.

They placed large orders but canceled them before they were matched to give the impression that there is large demand for the shares.

Quyet allegedly gained VND723 billion illegally from the manipulation, which is considered a serious violation of the State's economic management order.

He is accused of being the mastermind in the manipulation scheme and Hue was his main accomplice.

His other sister Nga allegedly ordered subordinates to give the stock accounts large margins so Hue’s group can place orders.