Tan Hoang Minh chairman and son to stand trial for $349M fraud

The People’s Court of Hanoi will start the trial on March 19, nearly two years after Dung was arrested. The trial is set to last at least 20 days.

Nearly 30 lawyers will participate in the trial, with Dung and his son each having one defending them.

Dung, Viet -- deputy CEO of Tan Hoang Minh Group, and 13 other defendants were charged with fraudulent appropriation of assets by the Supreme People's Procuracy of Vietnam.

The court will also summon the victims – the investors who bought the fraudulent bonds.

According to investigators, Tan Hoang Minh owed the bank nearly VND20 trillion in January 2022, not including the eight bond packages that it has issued since 2021.

To alleviate the situation, Dung instructed his son Viet to mobilize capital for the corporation through the issuance of private bonds.

The defendants did not use Tan Hoang Minh's legal status, but rather its subsidiary firms to issue these bonds. To draw in buyers, they chose to issue secured, non-convertible bonds without warranty, investigators added.

Tan Hoang Minh’s aim was to mobilize and appropriate money from investors, most of whom were civilians, to evade regulations that only allow firms to sell privately issued bonds to professional investors.

Dung also instructed his subordinates to use three subsidiaries, Ngoi Sao Viet, Soleil and Cung Dien Mua Dong, to fabricate non-existent economic activities.

The defendants collaborated with two audit firms to make their financial reports meet the requirements for bond issuance.

Through this method, the three companies had issued nine separate bond packages, totaling just over VND10 trillion in value, investigators said.

Dung ordered staff to transfer money back and forth between bank accounts to record that Tan Hoang Minh had bought the bonds issued by the companies that were part of its own ecosystem, even though the company never paid in full for the bonds.

Tan Hoang Minh then sold the bonds to investors. In the end, Tan Hoang Minh managed to mobilize around VND14 trillion from people who bought the bonds.

In April 2022, when the case was prosecuted, Tan Hoang Minh used over VND5 trillion brought in by people who purchased bonds later to pay those who bought the bonds earlier.

The remaining VND8.6 trillion, taken from 6,630 people, was appropriated by Tan Hoang Minh, investigators said.

During the investigation, Dung had submitted all the money he was accused of appropriating to the authorities.