FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet’s trial for fraud, stock manipulation begins

Quyet, 49, appeared at around 7 a.m. in a white shirt and dark pants. One of his lawyers said Quyet is in stable health after undergoing treatment for tuberculosis.

The court has summoned around 93,000 people to testify, 63,000 of them investors who bought shares of several companies that were allegedly manipulated by the accused.

Some 30,000 were defrauded into buying shares of Faros Construction (ROS), whose capital was fraudulently inflated thousands of times on paper by Quyet and his accomplices.

But only 30 of them showed up at court by 8.30 a.m. Truong Giang, 27, of Hanoi said he still holds 38,000 ROS shares since their trading was suspended after Quyet’s arrest.

He wants to be compensated at the price he paid for them. Of the 50 accused, Quyet has turned in the most money -- VND212.5 billion (US$8.4 million) or 5% of the total losses suffered by investors -- to compensate them.

His two sisters, also among his accomplices, have paid in VND100 million each. Many of the accused are his relatives or friends, but include seven officials who allegedly enabled him to commit his crimes.

Doan Van Phuong, Quyet’s right-hand man, CEO of FLC and chairman of Faros Construction, is in hiding.

Authorities said Phuong is in the U.K. and would be tried separately.

The trial of FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet and his accomplices at the People's Court of Hanoi on July 22, 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Hoa

Prosecutors said Quyet instructed his sister Hue to open 500 stock accounts under the names of 45 associates and used them to trade back and forth the stocks of FLC and its four subsidiaries.

He made illegal gains of VND723 billion from this.

With respect to the fraudulent appropriation of assets charge, prosecutors said he directed his sister, an accountant in the company, and Phuong 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 approved the listing despite not being to able to confirm if the company had VND4.3 trillion in capital.

Investors, taken in by this, bought the 391 million shares that were listed. Quyet earned another VND3.62 trillion from this.