FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet faces jail term of 24-26 years

They recommended 19-20 years for the former charge and 5-6 years for the latter at the People’s Court of Hanoi Friday.

They wanted the court to put away his sister Trinh Thi Minh Hue, an accountant at property developer FLC, for 17-19 years saying she provided the most assistance to Quyet in committing his crimes.

They said his other sister and deputy CEO of BOS Securities, Trinh Thi Thuy Nga, was also an accomplice and asked for 10-12 years’ imprisonment for her.

Several officials who helped Quyet list a company on the stock exchange after falsely inflating its capital by several thousand times also face jail time.

Le Cong Dien, head of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam’s department of public company supervision, is likely to get 36-42 months.

He and two other officials at the Vietnam Securities Depository were aware that FLC subsidiary Faros Construction did not provide enough evidence to prove its capital mobilization was legitimate, but still gave it permission to list, the prosecutors said.

Officials at the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE), where Faros was listed, also face prison terms.

The prosecutors recommended 8-9 years for Tran Dac Sinh, its chairman, for abuse of position and power while performing official duties, 6-7 years for former deputy CEOs Le Hai Tra and Tram Tuan Vu and 3-4 years for director of listing valuation, Le Thi Tuyet Hang.

They were aware of Faros’ dubious capital claims but still approved its listing because Sinh had a personal relationship with Quyet, the prosecutors said.

They proposed that Quyet’s assets, which have been frozen, be used to compensate investors who have been defrauded by his scheme.

Quyet told the court earlier that his assets were worth around VND5 trillion.

The prosecutors said "Quyet’s crimes were new and elaborate. He took advantage of gaps in the laws and used Faros and HoSE as tools" to illegally appropriate VND4.3 trillion.

He has turned in VND240 billion to authorities, or 5.5% of investors’ estimated losses, but prosecutors termed the amount low and said it warranted a harsh sentence.

Trinh Thi Minh Hue, sister of Trinh Van Quyet, seen at the People's Court of Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

Lawyers of Quyet had told the court during the trial that he committed his crimes not to benefit personally but to raise the public image of his companies, especially Faros Construction, to give them an advantage in competition.

They said that Quyet has kept most of his shares in his accounts and did not sell them for money, which means that he had yet to actually gain from them.

The prosecutors said that over 30,000 victims were defrauded by Quyet’s scheme, but his lawyers argued the actual number was 133.

Many investors who bought these shares even profited from selling them, which means they cannot be identified as "victims", the lawyers added.

Only those who bought Quyet’s shares since the beginning and never sold them until now can be identified as victims, and there are 133 of them, they said, adding that they lost VND2.2 billion in total for buying the shares.

Faros was a company with actual operation and it recorded revenues of VND1.1-2.2 trillion annually between 2017 and 2019 with 1,000 staff, they added.