FLC chairman arrested for stock market manipulation

Quyet and other individuals and companies will be investigated for stock market manipulation and concealing information on Jan. 10, 2022, actions said to have caused serious damage to investors and affected operations of Vietnam's stock exchange, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

He sold 74.8 million FLC shares Jan. 10, but the State Securities Commission (SSC) only received notice of the sale by the evening of that day though regulations require a notification three working days in advance.

On Jan. 17, Quyet was fined VND1.5 billion ($65,800) and banned from trading in the securities market for five months for failing to disclose plans to sell shares in his company.

It was the second time that Quyet was fined by the SSC for the same offense. In November 2017, he was fined VND65 million for selling 57 million FLC shares without proper notice.

Quyet, 47, has a large stock portfolio and was once one of the wealthiest people on the Vietnamese stock exchange.

He began his career as a lawyer in 2001, when he and his associates established the SMiC Law Office, which later became the SMiC Law Firm. He also established a number of businesses and the FLC brand was formed in early 2010 after merging all of them.

Bamboo Airways, founded by FLC, entered the aviation market in 2019.

FLC's charter capital stood at VND10.5 trillion (over $459 million) in early 2021, after more than 10 years of operation.

As of January 2022, the FLC chairman owned over 215 million FLC shares, equivalent to approximately 30 percent, as well as tens of millions of stocks in related companies like ROS.

The stocks of FLC and related companies hit the floor Monday and Tuesday after the company was fined for flouting disclosure regulations on Friday.