Today, July 22, former FLC chairman Trinh Van Quyet was tried.

On July 22, the Hanoi People's Court is expected to open a trial with a record number of people summoned: 50 defendants, nearly 100 lawyers, more than 30,000 victims, 63,000 investors and many related people.

Similar to the Tan Hoang Minh case, the Hanoi People's Court continued to set up an outdoor theater with a large screen so that summoned people could conveniently follow the trial.

Mr. Quyet, 49 years old, was prosecuted by the Supreme People's Procuracy for 2 crimes.Stock market manipulationandFraudulent appropriation of property.

Mr. Quyet's lawyer said that his client's health is stable after a period of treatment for tuberculosis. His family has just paid him an additional 23 billion VND. He is currently the person who has recovered the most money among the 50 defendants, with 212.5 billion VND.

Mr. Quyet and his two sisters, defendants Trinh Thi Minh Hue and Trinh Thi Thuy Nga, had more than 2,200 square meters of real estate in Nam Tu Liem and Cau Giay districts (Hanoi) confiscated. The Supreme People's Procuracy recorded that Mr. Quyet's two sisters each paid 100 million VND to remedy the consequences.

Of the 50 defendants, most are leaders and employees of companies in the FLC "ecosystem" of 82 companies. They are also Mr. Quyet's brothers and friends. In addition, there are 7 former officials of the State Securities Commission, Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) and Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD).

Mr. Quyet (arrested in March 2022) and 26 defendants are being detained. The remaining 23 people are on bail and are prohibited from leaving their place of residence.

Mr. Quyet's "right-hand man" in the case was identified as Doan Van Phuong, former general director of FLC Group and chairman of the board of directors of Faros Construction Joint Stock Company, but is on the run. Authorities said Mr. Phuong had left for England and had not yet returned to Vietnam. The investigation agency has separated his actions for later handling.

According to the indictment, Mr. Quyet established and became Chairman of the Board of Directors of FLC Group in 2009, doing business in real estate, securities, and tourism services. After 11 years, the FLC ecosystem has 82 companies and 5 listed stocks on the stock exchange.

To appropriate investors' money, in 2014, Mr. Quyet directed his sister Trinh Thi Minh Hue and Doan Van Phuong to increase the capital contribution of Faros Company (stock code ROS) from 1.5 billion VND to 4,300 billion VND, listed on the stock exchange.

Mr. Phuong and Ms. Hue asked some people to act as shareholders to receive the transfer of Faros shares. The company's leaders recorded this false information in the audited financial report and prospectus to complete the dossier for listing ROS shares.

The Supreme People's Procuracy believes that some former officials of the State Securities Commission, the Securities Depository Center and the HOSE knew about the violations, but due to "fear, acquaintances, and wanting to create favorable conditions", still agreed to list 430 million ROS shares.

The indictment stated that the defendants' violations lasted for 9 years (2014-2022), causing stock investors to mistakenly believe that ROS shares had real value. From there, Mr. Quyet sold 391 million shares to more than 30,400 investors, appropriating 3,620 billion VND. This behavior led to Mr. Quyet being prosecuted.Fraudulent appropriation of property.

With crimeStock market manipulationThe Supreme People's Procuracy accused Mr. Quyet of directing his sister Hue to borrow documents from 45 people to use the names of 20 businesses and open 500 securities accounts to manipulate the market and gain illegal profits.

Meanwhile, Mr. Quyet's other sister, defendant Nga, in her capacity as Vice Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of BOS Securities Joint Stock Company, continuously granted false limits to these accounts to buy stocks, even though there was no money. The total amount of money granted by Ms. Nga, over more than 1,500 times, was determined to be up to 170,000 billion VND.

Five stocks AMD, HAI, GAB, FLC, ART were continuously bought and sold by Mr. Quyet's group in large volumes, dominating the market at the opening and closing of trading sessions. The group placed buy and sell orders and then canceled them to create fake supply and demand. This action helped Mr. Quyet earn a profit of 723 billion VND.

The manipulation of AMD shares took place before the 2015 Penal Code took effect, so Mr. Quyet must bear criminal responsibility for the remaining 4 codes, totaling VND684 billion. Mr. Quyet and Ms. Hue must return the profits from AMD code.

In both violations, Mr. Quyet was identified as the mastermind, deciding and directing all actions of his accomplices.